8 ms·

Shrturl: Faking the web since 1942

258 points by priteshjain 12y ago

priteshjain 12y ago
TNW article http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/05/shrturl-co-youll-never-trust-shortener/ http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/05/shrturl-co-youll-never-t...
good-citizen 12y ago
really well done and funny. i like this power.
iamthepieman 12y ago
This is pretty funny and well done - but doesn't a real short url just redirect to the original so you end up with the full url in your browser bar? Of course we all know how much attention most people pay to what their browser is telling them.
- kndyry 12y ago
  Well, and given recent UI changes to the address bar from both Apple [0] and Google [1] - I'd say that people will begin paying even less attention to URLs. Trolls rejoice. [0] http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/06/04/os-x-yosemite-first-look-safari-8-smart-search-advanced-tab-controls-more http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/06/04/os-x-yosemite-firs... [1] http://www.zdnet.com/google-experimenting-with-hiding-urls-in-chrome-7000029068/ http://www.zdnet.com/google-experimenting-with-hiding-urls-i...
  - lmm 12y ago
    Those changes should make this kind of thing more obvious, not less, unless you can figure out a way to host the altered version on github.com.
    - kuschku 12y ago
      Using github.io? As the URL bar loses importance then people will just tend to ignore it, and on first glance (and probably for anyone who's not familiar with github pages) they will both look as valid.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        You can't use github.io, only [project-name].github.io. Sure they could use a fake-but-similar project name, but then again, they already could with github.com/[project-name]. I don't see the big difference for the user.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - gohrt 12y ago
    Google is hiding PATH not DOMAIN_NAME, which makes this phishing activity EASIER to detect. That's the point of the feature!
    - amjd 12y ago
      Except it isn't phishing.
      - eli 12y ago
        That's debatable. I think the only difference is maybe the intent of the attacker?
        amjd 12y ago
        As I understand it, phishing is when you obtain sensitive information from a user while impersonating a site the user trusts. I don't suppose there's any exchange of sensitive information taking place here (nor is it possible if I am not mistaken, unless the website creator has any bad intent).
  - laureny 12y ago
    Did you mean http://shrturl.co/EPUi5 http://shrturl.co/EPUi5 ?
  - orthecreedence 12y ago
    Removing http:// http:// from the url was bad enough. Now they are going to only show the domain? I'm so glad I don't use chrome anymore. It's this kind of obnoxious "we know better than you and won't let you configure otherwise" bullshit that made me hate it.
    - dmpatierno 12y ago
      The chrome setting is behind a config flag.
    - Justsignedup 12y ago
      Even if it was customizable, the defaults is something most people don't change. Case and point: IE Toolbars. People hate them but never remove them. Ever. Even as those toolbars are making their browser take minutes to load any page.
      - BrandonLive 12y ago
        That used to be true, but these days IE is pretty aggressive about disabling things, and telling you when they're slowing you down. Doesn't help everyone but seems to help some.
  - bluthru 12y ago
    Why don't they just bold the domain? Chrome sort of grays the rest of the URL, but the difference isn't stark enough.
- gamerDude 12y ago
  Couldn't you change the browser display of the url without reloading the page such that you can mimic the url as well.
  - jere 12y ago
    There's no way any browser would allow that and no reason for it. It would make phishing orders of magnitude more effective.
jxf 12y ago
Unsophisticated journalists routinely fall for Onion articles getting picked up as actual news items. I can only wonder how often they're going to get pranked by something that really does look like a news site but for a subtle change.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - batmansbelt 12y ago
    Some pretty big news organizations have run with Onion sources and / or wikipedia falsehoods.
    - pyre 12y ago
      There was that one case where it created a circular reference too. [E.g. Journalist creates an unsubstantiated article about something on Wikipedia. Eventually Wikipedia cites said article as a reference. ]
      - tlrobinson 12y ago
        The Brazilian aardvark? http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/05/how-a-raccoon-became-an-aardvark.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/05/how-a...
    - krrishd 12y ago
      Fox News was one of them IIRC.
- gedrap 12y ago
  Oh yeah. What amuses me even more is people finding a link to Onion-style blog post and not realising that it's parody/sarcasm/whatever (e.g. Swedish House Mafia is sued by Swedish Mafia for copyright infringement). Sometimes I point that out, and usually get a response "how do you know it's not real? do you know all the news of the world?". People like that make me believe in the trolling power of this tool.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jacquesm 12y ago
We had one of these posted earlier today about AH buying YC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7851238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7851238
- kclay 12y ago
  I was on mobile when I say this and didn't even notice the url. I can see how people on mobile atleast chrome can fall for stuff like this.
- Dragonai 12y ago
  I'm the one who wrote that. :) It was meant to be a joke to get some twitch reactions out of a few friends, but apparently spread like wildfire. TechCrunch reached out earlier this morning. They are not happy with me.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    Apologies for flagging it but it looked good enough that I thought some real damage might come of it. YC being implicated in a thing like that would have looked really bad. You really shouldn't have used a real persons by-line there, that made it much more believable. Still, kudos for the prank, it was funny, especially the insane valuation.
    - Dragonai 12y ago
      Oh I wasn't the one who submitted it to HN, I really only meant for it to deceive my friends, haha. I understand though! Fine by me. And thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I've resolved it with the reporter in question, we're all good.
dmix 12y ago
Tried it on hacker news: http://shrturl.co/AtYui http://shrturl.co/AtYui
- rabino 12y ago
  I knew something was going to be changed, and still fell for it. Good job.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Did the same: http://shrturl.co/6PcYY http://shrturl.co/6PcYY
- valarauca1 12y ago
  Fun FF29.0.1 (windows 7) doesn't apply I'm guessing link CSS so everything is bright blue links looks really fake. Refreshed the page a few times to check, it stayed.
  - owenversteeg 12y ago
    Nah, it's also on Chromium on Arch. It looks like (via the requests panel) it's not loading news.css for some reason, even though it's in the source.
windowsuser 12y ago
http://shrturl.co/q93wy http://shrturl.co/q93wy
chrisweekly 12y ago
PaaS? (Phishing as a Service)? Yikes.
- notahacker 12y ago
  http://shrturl.co/b8K5E http://shrturl.co/b8K5E
DogeDogeDoge 12y ago
Opens world for kid phishers :) Almost good, but no images (tried with google.com)
bitdestroyer 12y ago
If you're feeling particularly nefarious, run the URL that Shtrurl.co gives you through often used and more readily "trusted" shorteners like bit.ly or tinyurl.com.
gregimba 12y ago
http://shrturl.co/lwqKm http://shrturl.co/lwqKm
roryokane 12y ago
An example of a link to a GitHub page: http://shrturl.co/VUYHJ http://shrturl.co/VUYHJ. (Original: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues/14657 https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues/14657 .) I see that SHRTURL deleted the page title, which users might also notice – but it’s better than keeping the original title, which would now be wrong. SHRTURL also can’t handle GitHub’s custom font with which they render their icons, so the site logo is missing. And you are logged out in the linked page, which is pretty visible, but there’s no way SHRTURL could get around that.
- allochthon 12y ago
  The OP's site is really clever. Your Github page shows that it significantly lowers the barrier to MTM attacks. I wonder what ways there are to protect users against this kind of spoofing.
  - eli 12y ago
    Check the URL bar carefully?
    - valarauca1 12y ago
      Indeed, an actual link shortener would show github.com/yada/yada/yada. Since it only redirects you. Notice shrturl.co doesn't.
martin-adams 12y ago
Lost all my work due to pressing the backspace key :(
MichaelAza 12y ago
This is really funny, but some points for improvement: 1. The editing UI is a bit shaky, for example - not handling links that great. 2. It doesn't replicate a site perfectly (This shows even on simple sites like HN) 3. If you click on a link you go back to the original site. A modest proposal for improvement - check out TOMODO API.(http://tomodo.com/api/ http://tomodo.com/api/). Their site allows for exactly this kind of modification but, being a commercial startup, is much more polished. They already solved problems 2 and 3 for you and you can use that tech through the API.
jawns 12y ago
I think a lot of us have come up with variations on this idea over the years. (I know I have. The holy grail is surreptitiously installing a Greasemonkey script on a co-worker's computer, so that the URL is the real URL.) But what's changed in the last year or two is that people are now much more familiar with URL shortener links. Every major media site is using them, and just about everybody understands what their purpose is. I can totally see how someone who would spot a phishing page from a mile away because of the strange URL might overlook the fact that a URL shortener doesn't actually redirect you to the legit page, but rather presents a spoofed version.
- mikeash 12y ago
  I tried it on a tech-savvy friend, taking a news story about GM firing engineers over the recall and changing the headline to say that they fired Bob Dole. His immediate reaction was to think that the WSJ got hacked, with the secondary possibility that Bob Dole really did work for GM somehow. He didn't realize what was going on until I posted a second version saying he had been fired by GM. Be careful out there, kids.
- makmanalp 12y ago
  There's this kind of prank too: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ncage/hnbmfljfohghaepamnfokgggaejlmfol?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ncage/hnbmfljfohgh...
mavus 12y ago
Anything from shrturl.co appears to be blocked at work for me. So I guess we already don't trust it.
InclinedPlane 12y ago
One suggestion. Put an annoying top menu / banner up and pretend to load the target content in a frame. There are some url shorteners / sites that do that sort of thing. To a lot of people it will be annoying, but it will hide the fact that they're not actually being served from the target web site.
verticalflight 12y ago
Takes rickrolling to a whole new level.
dopamin3 12y ago
Here's one (Amazon's new phone, title from a /r thread): http://shrturl.co/Wme7K http://shrturl.co/Wme7K
- buremba 12y ago
  that's hilarious. :)
- mVChr 12y ago
  Dying here, nice start to the morning, thanks
retube 12y ago
This is awesome!
chris_mahan 12y ago
I just make my own urls look correct, easy, and easy to type (not 988 characters of goop).
Aoyagi 12y ago
Well, every shortened URL I want to access goes through http://unshort.me/ http://unshort.me/ . Not only I don't like surprises, but I also hate being tracked for no reason and I'm hoping unshort.me doesn't send everything their way anyway.
randunel 12y ago
Gotta` prepare for HN dude... Warning: mysqli::mysqli() [mysqli.mysqli]: (42000/1203): User db180736 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/inc/bootstrap.php on line 18
- moontear 12y ago
  Not only that. Gotta prepare to never show messages like this. User 'db180736' is a bit too much information for the outside world.
jedisct1 12y ago
Tech from 1942... Warning: mysqli::mysqli() [mysqli.mysqli]: (42000/1203): User db180736 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/inc/bootstrap.php on line 18 Warning: mysqli::real_escape_string() [mysqli.real-escape-string]: Couldn't fetch mysqli in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/view.php on line 6 Warning: mysqli::query() [mysqli.query]: Couldn't fetch mysqli in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/view.php on line 7 Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_object() on a non-object in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/view.php on line 9
gone35 12y ago
It seems it's been shut down already [1] --apparently after threats of legal action. I can see though how such a site would easily become a major liability honeypot for anyone. [1] http://t.co/ctKD8VcLpp http://t.co/ctKD8VcLpp
- sharth 12y ago
  Note that this is faked a page using the tools that this site offers. That is, the site is not shutting down.
  - billmalarky 12y ago
    Come on man, really?
- mikeash 12y ago
  Oh, you unbelievably clever person. I was all ready to type up a serious reply and everything.
- pwenzel 12y ago
  Well done, my friend.
flurpitude 12y ago
Bitdefender Free Edition blocks http://shrturl.co/ http://shrturl.co/ (says it's phishing) but doesn't block http://shrturl.co/AtYui http://shrturl.co/AtYui or other short URLs generated with the site. Seems like pretty poor logic.
DesaiAshu 12y ago
Could turn this into a way for marketers to tweak a page before sending out an email or social media blast
- unfunco 12y ago
  It could but should not. A better product for that might be Optimizely, where you can use your actual URL. However, I once worked with an extremely obsessive owner of a business and she sat by me each time I made any changes to the copy on the website to make sure it flowed correctly when in situ, I would have sent this to her to make my life a little easier had it existed back then.
- chug2k 12y ago
  Actually, surprisingly good for our our marketer/designer to quickly mock up small changes to our landing page. We wouldn't share it publicly, but for internal use kinda neat.
chm 12y ago
Error: Warning: file_get_contents() [function.file get-contents]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /nfs/c04/h02/mn /180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/create.php on line 18 Warning: file_get_contents(http://gnehmeh) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domain /shrturl.co/html/create.php on line 18
gioele 12y ago
Reminds me of the great prank vaticano.org in 1998: http://0100101110101101.org/vaticano-org/ http://0100101110101101.org/vaticano-org/ A real piece of art.
calbear81 12y ago
I can think of a nefarious way to use this: Amazon.com price matching at brick and mortar stores like Target. Step 1 - Find a product you want to buy Step 2 - Shorten it and change the price manually to a "believable" number Step 3 - Go into Target and show the price to a customer service agent (usually not tech saavy) and they will see that it looks like Amazon. Step 4 - Profit???
Paul-Troll 12y ago
http://tinyur1.co http://tinyur1.co is a better alternative, don't you think?
Paul-Troll 12y ago
http://tinyur1.co http://tinyur1.co is the alternative!

258 points by priteshjain 12y ago

TNW article http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/05/shrturl-co-youll-never-trust-shortener/ http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/05/shrturl-co-youll-never-t...

good-citizen 12y ago

really well done and funny. i like this power.

iamthepieman 12y ago

This is pretty funny and well done - but doesn't a real short url just redirect to the original so you end up with the full url in your browser bar? Of course we all know how much attention most people pay to what their browser is telling them.

kndyry 12y ago
Well, and given recent UI changes to the address bar from both Apple [0] and Google [1] - I'd say that people will begin paying even less attention to URLs. Trolls rejoice. [0] http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/06/04/os-x-yosemite-first-look-safari-8-smart-search-advanced-tab-controls-more http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/06/04/os-x-yosemite-firs... [1] http://www.zdnet.com/google-experimenting-with-hiding-urls-in-chrome-7000029068/ http://www.zdnet.com/google-experimenting-with-hiding-urls-i...
- lmm 12y ago
  Those changes should make this kind of thing more obvious, not less, unless you can figure out a way to host the altered version on github.com.
  - kuschku 12y ago
    Using github.io? As the URL bar loses importance then people will just tend to ignore it, and on first glance (and probably for anyone who's not familiar with github pages) they will both look as valid.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      You can't use github.io, only [project-name].github.io. Sure they could use a fake-but-similar project name, but then again, they already could with github.com/[project-name]. I don't see the big difference for the user.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- gohrt 12y ago
  Google is hiding PATH not DOMAIN_NAME, which makes this phishing activity EASIER to detect. That's the point of the feature!
  - amjd 12y ago
    Except it isn't phishing.
    - eli 12y ago
      That's debatable. I think the only difference is maybe the intent of the attacker?
      - amjd 12y ago
        As I understand it, phishing is when you obtain sensitive information from a user while impersonating a site the user trusts. I don't suppose there's any exchange of sensitive information taking place here (nor is it possible if I am not mistaken, unless the website creator has any bad intent).
- laureny 12y ago
  Did you mean http://shrturl.co/EPUi5 http://shrturl.co/EPUi5 ?
- orthecreedence 12y ago
  Removing http:// http:// from the url was bad enough. Now they are going to only show the domain? I'm so glad I don't use chrome anymore. It's this kind of obnoxious "we know better than you and won't let you configure otherwise" bullshit that made me hate it.
  - dmpatierno 12y ago
    The chrome setting is behind a config flag.
  - Justsignedup 12y ago
    Even if it was customizable, the defaults is something most people don't change. Case and point: IE Toolbars. People hate them but never remove them. Ever. Even as those toolbars are making their browser take minutes to load any page.
    - BrandonLive 12y ago
      That used to be true, but these days IE is pretty aggressive about disabling things, and telling you when they're slowing you down. Doesn't help everyone but seems to help some.
- bluthru 12y ago
  Why don't they just bold the domain? Chrome sort of grays the rest of the URL, but the difference isn't stark enough.
gamerDude 12y ago
Couldn't you change the browser display of the url without reloading the page such that you can mimic the url as well.
- jere 12y ago
  There's no way any browser would allow that and no reason for it. It would make phishing orders of magnitude more effective.

jxf 12y ago

Unsophisticated journalists routinely fall for Onion articles getting picked up as actual news items. I can only wonder how often they're going to get pranked by something that really does look like a news site but for a subtle change.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- batmansbelt 12y ago
  Some pretty big news organizations have run with Onion sources and / or wikipedia falsehoods.
  - pyre 12y ago
    There was that one case where it created a circular reference too. [E.g. Journalist creates an unsubstantiated article about something on Wikipedia. Eventually Wikipedia cites said article as a reference. ]
    - tlrobinson 12y ago
      The Brazilian aardvark? http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/05/how-a-raccoon-became-an-aardvark.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/05/how-a...
  - krrishd 12y ago
    Fox News was one of them IIRC.
gedrap 12y ago
Oh yeah. What amuses me even more is people finding a link to Onion-style blog post and not realising that it's parody/sarcasm/whatever (e.g. Swedish House Mafia is sued by Swedish Mafia for copyright infringement). Sometimes I point that out, and usually get a response "how do you know it's not real? do you know all the news of the world?". People like that make me believe in the trolling power of this tool.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jacquesm 12y ago

We had one of these posted earlier today about AH buying YC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7851238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7851238

kclay 12y ago
I was on mobile when I say this and didn't even notice the url. I can see how people on mobile atleast chrome can fall for stuff like this.
Dragonai 12y ago
I'm the one who wrote that. :) It was meant to be a joke to get some twitch reactions out of a few friends, but apparently spread like wildfire. TechCrunch reached out earlier this morning. They are not happy with me.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Apologies for flagging it but it looked good enough that I thought some real damage might come of it. YC being implicated in a thing like that would have looked really bad. You really shouldn't have used a real persons by-line there, that made it much more believable. Still, kudos for the prank, it was funny, especially the insane valuation.
  - Dragonai 12y ago
    Oh I wasn't the one who submitted it to HN, I really only meant for it to deceive my friends, haha. I understand though! Fine by me. And thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I've resolved it with the reporter in question, we're all good.

dmix 12y ago

Tried it on hacker news: http://shrturl.co/AtYui http://shrturl.co/AtYui

rabino 12y ago
I knew something was going to be changed, and still fell for it. Good job.
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Did the same: http://shrturl.co/6PcYY http://shrturl.co/6PcYY
valarauca1 12y ago
Fun FF29.0.1 (windows 7) doesn't apply I'm guessing link CSS so everything is bright blue links looks really fake. Refreshed the page a few times to check, it stayed.
- owenversteeg 12y ago
  Nah, it's also on Chromium on Arch. It looks like (via the requests panel) it's not loading news.css for some reason, even though it's in the source.

windowsuser 12y ago

http://shrturl.co/q93wy http://shrturl.co/q93wy

chrisweekly 12y ago

PaaS? (Phishing as a Service)? Yikes.

notahacker 12y ago
http://shrturl.co/b8K5E http://shrturl.co/b8K5E

DogeDogeDoge 12y ago

Opens world for kid phishers :) Almost good, but no images (tried with google.com)

bitdestroyer 12y ago

If you're feeling particularly nefarious, run the URL that Shtrurl.co gives you through often used and more readily "trusted" shorteners like bit.ly or tinyurl.com.

gregimba 12y ago

http://shrturl.co/lwqKm http://shrturl.co/lwqKm

roryokane 12y ago

An example of a link to a GitHub page: http://shrturl.co/VUYHJ http://shrturl.co/VUYHJ. (Original: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues/14657 https://github.com/mozilla/rust/issues/14657 .) I see that SHRTURL deleted the page title, which users might also notice – but it’s better than keeping the original title, which would now be wrong. SHRTURL also can’t handle GitHub’s custom font with which they render their icons, so the site logo is missing. And you are logged out in the linked page, which is pretty visible, but there’s no way SHRTURL could get around that.

allochthon 12y ago
The OP's site is really clever. Your Github page shows that it significantly lowers the barrier to MTM attacks. I wonder what ways there are to protect users against this kind of spoofing.
- eli 12y ago
  Check the URL bar carefully?
  - valarauca1 12y ago
    Indeed, an actual link shortener would show github.com/yada/yada/yada. Since it only redirects you. Notice shrturl.co doesn't.

martin-adams 12y ago

Lost all my work due to pressing the backspace key :(

MichaelAza 12y ago

This is really funny, but some points for improvement: 1. The editing UI is a bit shaky, for example - not handling links that great. 2. It doesn't replicate a site perfectly (This shows even on simple sites like HN) 3. If you click on a link you go back to the original site. A modest proposal for improvement - check out TOMODO API.(http://tomodo.com/api/ http://tomodo.com/api/). Their site allows for exactly this kind of modification but, being a commercial startup, is much more polished. They already solved problems 2 and 3 for you and you can use that tech through the API.

jawns 12y ago

I think a lot of us have come up with variations on this idea over the years. (I know I have. The holy grail is surreptitiously installing a Greasemonkey script on a co-worker's computer, so that the URL is the real URL.) But what's changed in the last year or two is that people are now much more familiar with URL shortener links. Every major media site is using them, and just about everybody understands what their purpose is. I can totally see how someone who would spot a phishing page from a mile away because of the strange URL might overlook the fact that a URL shortener doesn't actually redirect you to the legit page, but rather presents a spoofed version.

mikeash 12y ago
I tried it on a tech-savvy friend, taking a news story about GM firing engineers over the recall and changing the headline to say that they fired Bob Dole. His immediate reaction was to think that the WSJ got hacked, with the secondary possibility that Bob Dole really did work for GM somehow. He didn't realize what was going on until I posted a second version saying he had been fired by GM. Be careful out there, kids.
makmanalp 12y ago
There's this kind of prank too: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ncage/hnbmfljfohghaepamnfokgggaejlmfol?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ncage/hnbmfljfohgh...

mavus 12y ago

Anything from shrturl.co appears to be blocked at work for me. So I guess we already don't trust it.

InclinedPlane 12y ago

One suggestion. Put an annoying top menu / banner up and pretend to load the target content in a frame. There are some url shorteners / sites that do that sort of thing. To a lot of people it will be annoying, but it will hide the fact that they're not actually being served from the target web site.

verticalflight 12y ago

Takes rickrolling to a whole new level.

dopamin3 12y ago

Here's one (Amazon's new phone, title from a /r thread): http://shrturl.co/Wme7K http://shrturl.co/Wme7K

buremba 12y ago
that's hilarious. :)
mVChr 12y ago
Dying here, nice start to the morning, thanks

retube 12y ago

This is awesome!

chris_mahan 12y ago

I just make my own urls look correct, easy, and easy to type (not 988 characters of goop).

Aoyagi 12y ago

Well, every shortened URL I want to access goes through http://unshort.me/ http://unshort.me/ . Not only I don't like surprises, but I also hate being tracked for no reason and I'm hoping unshort.me doesn't send everything their way anyway.

randunel 12y ago

Gotta` prepare for HN dude... Warning: mysqli::mysqli() [mysqli.mysqli]: (42000/1203): User db180736 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/inc/bootstrap.php on line 18

moontear 12y ago
Not only that. Gotta prepare to never show messages like this. User 'db180736' is a bit too much information for the outside world.

jedisct1 12y ago

Tech from 1942... Warning: mysqli::mysqli() [mysqli.mysqli]: (42000/1203): User db180736 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/inc/bootstrap.php on line 18 Warning: mysqli::real_escape_string() [mysqli.real-escape-string]: Couldn't fetch mysqli in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/view.php on line 6 Warning: mysqli::query() [mysqli.query]: Couldn't fetch mysqli in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/view.php on line 7 Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_object() on a non-object in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/view.php on line 9

gone35 12y ago

It seems it's been shut down already [1] --apparently after threats of legal action. I can see though how such a site would easily become a major liability honeypot for anyone. [1] http://t.co/ctKD8VcLpp http://t.co/ctKD8VcLpp

sharth 12y ago
Note that this is faked a page using the tools that this site offers. That is, the site is not shutting down.
- billmalarky 12y ago
  Come on man, really?
mikeash 12y ago
Oh, you unbelievably clever person. I was all ready to type up a serious reply and everything.
pwenzel 12y ago
Well done, my friend.

flurpitude 12y ago

Bitdefender Free Edition blocks http://shrturl.co/ http://shrturl.co/ (says it's phishing) but doesn't block http://shrturl.co/AtYui http://shrturl.co/AtYui or other short URLs generated with the site. Seems like pretty poor logic.

DesaiAshu 12y ago

Could turn this into a way for marketers to tweak a page before sending out an email or social media blast

unfunco 12y ago
It could but should not. A better product for that might be Optimizely, where you can use your actual URL. However, I once worked with an extremely obsessive owner of a business and she sat by me each time I made any changes to the copy on the website to make sure it flowed correctly when in situ, I would have sent this to her to make my life a little easier had it existed back then.
chug2k 12y ago
Actually, surprisingly good for our our marketer/designer to quickly mock up small changes to our landing page. We wouldn't share it publicly, but for internal use kinda neat.

chm 12y ago

Error: Warning: file_get_contents() [function.file get-contents]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /nfs/c04/h02/mn /180736/domains/shrturl.co/html/create.php on line 18 Warning: file_get_contents(http://gnehmeh) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /nfs/c04/h02/mnt/180736/domain /shrturl.co/html/create.php on line 18

gioele 12y ago

Reminds me of the great prank vaticano.org in 1998: http://0100101110101101.org/vaticano-org/ http://0100101110101101.org/vaticano-org/ A real piece of art.

calbear81 12y ago

I can think of a nefarious way to use this: Amazon.com price matching at brick and mortar stores like Target. Step 1 - Find a product you want to buy Step 2 - Shorten it and change the price manually to a "believable" number Step 3 - Go into Target and show the price to a customer service agent (usually not tech saavy) and they will see that it looks like Amazon. Step 4 - Profit???

Paul-Troll 12y ago

http://tinyur1.co http://tinyur1.co is a better alternative, don't you think?

Paul-Troll 12y ago

http://tinyur1.co http://tinyur1.co is the alternative!