Tiny URL

[Shatin]

Not directly related to Excel vba but I hope someone here can satisfy my
curiosity.

I've noticed that many people in this NG use tiny URL's. I wonder how they
manage to transform such a long URL into such a short string?

Any idea if the tiny URL's will always be valid or only for a short period
of time. The reason for asking this is if the tiny URL's will expire then
the links will become useless in the archive after a certain period of time,
in which case the original, albeit longer, URL will be more useful.

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
TinyUrl has probably a database storing the long URL and the mathcing
short version.
In respect to validity: They 'promiose' this short URL will always be
available (or at least sa long as they stay in business). So yes this
is a possible trade-off

 

[JE McGimpsey]

tiny URL's are a redirection service of TinyURL.com. The company claims
the URLs will never expire.

I will not use them because:

(a) there's no guarantee that this company will have any particular
longevity. At least one provider of short links has already gone out of
business, making their links useless (any company, like TinyURL, that
asks for donations on its home page is suspect in my book) and

(b) there's no indication of where you'll be redirected. Most people
won't post redirects to inappropriate sites, but you never know...

If TinyURL ever folds, the URLs become useless in the archives.

It's really not that hard to edit something like

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=g:thl4105106120d&dq=&hl=en&lr=lang_en&i
e=UTF-8&c2coff=1&safe=off&selm=OGn3u7JeDHA.1032%40TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl

to

http://google.com/[email protected]


deleting everything after "/groups?" except the "selm" or "threadm"
fields.

 

[Bob Phillips]

Shatin,

TinyUrl is a free service that as you say, usefully transforms a long URL to
a short one that is very valuable in NGs where we suffer from word-wrap.

One of its advantages to me, over say MakeShorterLink, is that it is a one
step process, click the URL and you go straight to the page, whereas with
MakeShorterLink takes you to a page where the original long URL is shown and
you then have to click on that.

URLs generated by TinyURL will be valid as long as the original URL works,
as all TinyURL does is run an algorithm on the original URL, it does not
provide the service to retrieve the data, so as such the TinyURL link cannot
expire. So in that respect, TinyURL does not affect the longevity. But of
course it does depend on TinyURL being an available service, and if it
should disappear, all of those links then fail. The other thing to consider
is whether you trust TinyURL to be as stable as the original source. It is
mainly used for Google postings, and does not yet have as stable a
reputation as Google, so you can have circumstances where Google is up and
running, but you cannot see a post because TinyURL is not.

Having said all that, I use it and love it. I love having a toolbar link
that generates my Tin yURL, very nice.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Dave Peterson]

And just to make perfectly clear, you deleted the groups from
//groups.google.com.

So you shrunk it even more!

 

[David McRitchie]

by changing selm= to threadm=
you show the entire thread not just one posting

You get the long link from the Original in Google.

The advantage to the link as JE posted is that it contains
the message-id which is the one identifying thing in a newsgroup
that does not change. So if Google went away and you had to
change a few things you still have the message id to find the article
as long as there is an archive.

I have this included on a permanent page
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/xlnews.htm
if you want to reference this information at a later time.

 

[Shatin]

I have this included on a permanent page

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/xlnews.htm

David, very useful info.

Re googling the newsgroups with your email address for replies to your
questions, one thing I find important is that, if you are the one who
initiates a new thread, make sure that the subject of your thread is not too
general. For example, if you have a problem with web query, don't use "Web
Query" as your subject; otherwise when you have to google for the replies
again, you will be surprised to learn that your "new" thread will actually
be listed under a thread started way back in 1998!