Tip #2174 - SnipURL
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SnipURL
Working with large
Web address can be bothersome on many levels. For instance, If you like
to send links to things your friends and family may find interesting,
you know how much of a pain huge URLs can be. If you build Web sites,
post links on blogs or are an active member of a forum or two, then you
probably know as well what a pain these lengthy addresses can be.
Look at this example of an out of control URL from an item on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003CXZ3/ref%3Dsr%5Faps%5Fd%5F1%5F7/
103\538622451046/oihjgjhgfjkfhgfhg/867785/%3Dsr%5Faps%5Fd%5F1%5F7/1oihjgjhgfjkfhgf
hg/867785/obidos/ref%3Dsr%5Faps%5Fd%5F1%5F7/103-3538622451046252bTQRc5bB8Zoqtl
OeDdZwlJtHLgfMIVHUWlmPWw8uDAvn6M%252bkyj2OhU7lZS%252fzgR6gc6Gc6UR0nFUKiK
Z%252fUA1FA7i4GoxVbNUmI3sVoXmLsVCjdi1tcAxjLEEXFdAvuJU%252bwjYfFeWO15n%25
2fiFsgXNxKDxWULBFtyxoa65AuWb0a5SU%252ftWdT4P7e8CtC9acf37axZa%252fI2MWC7g54T
PL6YB%252bwcKdZuh60N%252fb83BrfUSLSD/5F7/103\538622451046
That’s bloody
ridiculous. Could you imagine e-mailing this out to a couple of friends
that may be interested? And that’s what I’m talking about.
This monster could be an enormous amount of baggage especially if it were
an address I used frequently.
Now what If I told you that I could take this super-sized Web address
and shorten it down from 513 characters to just a mere 26? With no gimmicks
and complete functionality, I can shrink this URL down to a more manageable
size. With a wave of my magic mouse and by speaking the magical technical
words...Presto!
http://SnipURL.com/mcjk
It is done! The address
above will now take you to the exact same place as that monstrosity above
and it’s permanent. This isn’t something you need to do every
time you want to convert an address.
As I’m sure you guessed, there’s no magic involved. I can’t
even do a card trick. Instead, I used what they call a site redirector
called SnipURL, which does
all the work for me. Using SnipURL is easy as pie. All you have to do
is dump the address into the box and select the SnipURL
button. That’s it!
SnipURL isn’t
the only site redirector out there, but I like it better then the rest
because of the bounty of features it offers. If you want to take advantage
of all of SnipURL’s features, you are going to need to create a
user account, (which takes two seconds to fill out with no sensitive information
being traded) but after you see the lists of features it has to offer,
you’ll understand.
TinyURL
is also a great free site redirector that has no signup and is very easy
to use. It also includes tips on how to add it to your links toolbar in
your browser.
Here are some of the benefits you can enjoy from using SnipURL:
1.FUNCTIONS
IN FIVE LANGUAGES (and more coming soon!)
The Web site can be viewed in English, Chinese,
Japanese, Spanish
and French. They are
also working on text only versions
in each of these languages, so that makes it 10 types of Web sites as
I write this. Among these languages, it covers at least 80 percent of
the world, if not more.
2. MORE INTUITIVE
URLs WITH NICKNAMES
Don't like URLs like http://SnipURL.com/h
because they are just some random text? Then you can make http://SnipURL.com/digicam_review
and post more intuitive URLs to your mailing lists or in your newsletters
with sophisticated user tracking, etc.
3. PROTECTED
SNIPPED URLs (private)
Worried that people can basically guess http://SnipURL.com/1
or http://SnipURL.com/2
or http://SnipURL.com/<some
sequence here? But, you want to have a URL that you can track, but
only with users you send the URL to? Then you can "protect"
your snippings with a keycode. So, instead of a URL such as http://SnipURL.com/i,
it will become http://SnipURL.com/i-secret
where "secret" is your password. Private "snippings"
are excluded from the statistics or search, of course.
4. MULTIPLE
SNIPPINGS
Now you can snip many URLs in one, go: http://SnipURL.com/multi
5. INTUITIVE
STATISTICS AND SEARCH IN "MYSNIPURL"
A quick registration process gives you access to all the URLs you have
snipped in one screen, along with click through statistics. You can also
search for the URLs you have snipped by entering keywords that were contained
in the original link or the nicknames you gave to your snipped URLs. Apart
from your own URLs, it also offers some popular statistics under the EVERYTHING
ELSE section, which includes for instance, the Most
Popular Snippings.
6. EDIT SNIPPINGS!
If your underlying link has expired or is a deadlink, you can always edit
your snippings from the MYSNIPURL page. (None of the comparable Web sites
that I am aware of offer a possibility to edit your snippings).
7. SHORTCUT
A spiffy shortcut allows you to add a "bookmarklet" to your
browser and "snip" URLs quickly (for people who do not understand
bookmarklets, we have a little visual help: http://SnipURL.com/SnipThis.htm
which is a flash animation and opens in a new window or a more
detailed FAQ). After the shortcut is installed on your browser bar,
snipping is as easy as:
-Copy to clipboard
quickly (pop up window closes automatically after you copy the snipped
URL in your clipboard).
-Share the snipped URL right from this Web site.
-Compose new mails (using your default e-mail client). The snipped URL
is automatically inserted.
8. MANAGE
YOUR SNIPPED URLs EASILY IN EXCEL
MYSNIPURL has a "LIST ALL"
feature that allows you to view all your snipped URLs in one plain page.
This can be easily imported into Excel using the following:
DATA --> IMPORT
EXTERNAL DATA --> NEW WEB QUERY --> http://SnipURL.com/listSnips.php
All your snips will show immediately in Excel (assuming you are logged
in on the SnipURL Web site) and you can conveniently see and manage the
entire list of your snips in Excel, including counts of each. Save this
Excel file and next time, all you need to put in is DATA --> REFRESH
DATA. That's it! Now you can manage your snippings through Excel instead
of MYSNIPURL!
9. REAL REDIRECTS
SnipURL will also let you do "deep snipping." So if your snipped
Web site is "http://SnipURL.com/e"
(which points to the Web site "http://www.copyright.gov")
and you have directories and files below that level, you can access them
using "http://SnipURL.com/e/carp/index.html,
" which is actually http://www.copyright.gov/carp/index.html.
10. SPAM CONTROL
If a snipped redirection is suspected of unfair use of the services and
is in violation of the Terms of Use, they reserve the right to suspend
the snipping. An example is http://SnipURL.com/th.
11. VISUAL
INDICATION OF URL TYPES
While
in the statistics Web page, a visual icon indicates what the nature of
the underlying URL is. i.e.http://SnipURL.com/else.php,
so that you can decide before you unwittingly click on an executable file
or a PDF file, for instance.
12. PERMANANT
SNIPPINGS
Your snipped or shortened URLs will be left as they are (you can always
edit them too, of course). Snipped URLs never die, they just get spam
protected, if anything. :)
13. TEXT-ONLY
VERSION FOR DIAL-UP USERS, OR FOR MINIMALISTS IN GENERAL
If you find graphics obstructing your work (although they make the information
more visually intuitive, the site recommends using this version if possible),
then you can use the toned down text version as well. Read
more about this in our FAQ.
14. A PUBLIC
STATISTICS PAGE WITH FLOOD CONTROL
A public statistics page (http://SnipURL.com/else.php)
allows you to see the most popular snippings. A "flood control"
mechanism is implemented in this Web page so that unfairly "bumped"
accesses to URLs are carefully chaffed out. And of course, users can search
these too. "Protected" URLs are not included in this public
view, of course.
15. A PERL
API
SnipURL now exists as a Perl API for those who are interested! Click here
to go
get the module at CPAN. (Thanks to Taguchi-san of Cisco for letting
us know about this).
So if you're somebody
that is always working with links, this may be a service you want to check
out. It could make your life a little easier anyway.
~Chad Stelnicki
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