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As a user the most frustrating part isn't waiting for the page to load (due to the third party) but just not knowing where I'm going. URLs have gone from being
by MichaelApproved 18y ago
As a user the most frustrating part isn't waiting for the page to load (due to the third party) but just not knowing where I'm going. URLs have gone from being cryptic to being titled seo/human friendly to cryptic again. I like knowing the title of an article before I click on it.
- wheels 18y agoI almost always use tinyurl for that reason since I can enter a descriptive name.
- Semiapies 18y agoThe descriptive ones are nice. http://tinyurl.com/Do-Tiny-URLs-Suck http://tinyurl.com/Do-Tiny-URLs-Suck gives a little more information than http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545565 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=545565
- pclark 18y agodescriptive doesn't help with malicious intent
- branden 18y agoReally, it makes that problem worse. I've had it burned into my brain what a shortened URL looks like - short domain, short hash - so I can immediately recognize one and be suspicious of it. But looking at http://tinyurl.com/Do-Tiny-URLs-Suck http://tinyurl.com/Do-Tiny-URLs-Suck, I may just click without realizing what it actually is.
- bradgessler 18y agoI wrote shorty (http://github.com/bradgessler/shorty/tree/master http://github.com/bradgessler/shorty/tree/master), installed it on heroku.com, and hooked my own URL up to it so I could enter concise, descriptive shortened URLs. Its not for Joe Shmoe but if you're a geek, check it out.
- thorax 18y agoWell, for our site, tinyarro.ws, all URLs are all automatically previewed so you have a chance to decide. So if you can get over clicking silly unicode URLs, you should feel more comfortable. http://➔.ws/this http://➔.ws/this I'm a big fan of informed consent, and I don't understand why the other URL shrinkers don't do opt-out previewing rather than requiring people to track down some mysterious preview cookie or preview URL syntax.
- joshu 18y agoyou're solving a problem you made. want a medal?
- thorax 18y agoWe didn't make the problem. We're just having fun with silly URL hacks and giving people something fun to show their friends. While we're at it, we're trying to do it the best way we know how.
- zanders 18y agoGood comeback.
- joshu 18y agoThere's always the choice not to participate in some activity.
- ojbyrne 18y agoAmong other things, that would have solved the Great Depression, World War I, and Germany's hyperinflation in the thirties. Also AIDS.
- spinchange 18y agoYep, Linkrot is right up there.
- axod 18y agoThis is why I implemented url following on the server in Mibbit... Having someone throw you a shortened url on IRC is a pain, so now the Mibbit server follows it, and sends over the destination URL, which shows when you hover over the shortened URL. Means a few less surprises ;) I've seen a couple of other sites do something similar, although it's usually an (expand) thing you have to click.
- sgrove 18y agoWell done. A creative solution, well-implemented.
- TweedHeads 18y agoPerfect, that's what everybody should do, just replace the unreadable cryptic shortener with "link" and follow the url so hovering will show it on the status bar. I hate not knowing where a link will take me.