Twitter? What he heck is Twitter? 
Twitterâs premise is that the text should work as an SMS. âHiddenâ links do not translate to SMS and thus Twitter would argue that it couldnât use those without in some cases truncating text through SMS.
We actually allow you to buy your own tiny URL service so you donât have to worry about the domain going away, and track our own stats, etc:
I agree with Steve a few comments back about branding your link. I hate the shortening when Twitter doesnât need to shorten the url. Unfortunately my url is a tad on the long side and eats up alot of the 140 characters anyways.
Twitter caused the problem, so Twitter should solve it: URLs will count only for X characters, no matter how long they actually are. They will be displayed in full, except:
Any URLs that need to be sent via SMS will be shortened by Twitter immediately before sending. (Most people donât surf from plain old cell phones anyway. People with smart phones are mainly using Web interface of special client.)
I think I saw mention today of a URL shortening service being hacked. So it could be sending people to malware sites. Iâm generally wary of clicking on shortened URLS, especially if from people I donât know.
I try to tweet/dent original URLS if they will fit, although I have to trick Gwibber (Linux client) by missing off the first character to prevent automatic shortening.
As for the issue of linking breaking if the service dies, maybe site developers could start generating their own short URLs as http://site.com/###### and provide that for people to use on Twitter if they want to future-proof inward-bound links.
140 characters isnât feature. Itâs SMS problem :)))
I agree with Steve. Web sites should provide their own shortened links instead of those God awful long ones.
FYI, the 140-character limit is enforced by Twitterâs web interface, but not its underlying mechanism. I recently added Twitter support to some applications I produce, and was surprised to find the API let me publish tweats 300+ characters long, and they fully appeared to those following the target account.
I suspect that this support is accidental, and, hence, temporary.
Get off my lawn!
I completely agree. If tinyurl.com goes away, most of twitter has no meaning. Most tweets are âHey, check this out: <a href=âhttp://tinyurl.com/???â.â>http://tinyurl.com/???". The meaning is in the link, not in the tweet. If those url-shorteners go away, weâre all kind of SOL.
âI completely agree. If tinyurl.com goes away, most of twitter has no meaning. Most tweets are âHey, check this out: <a href=âhttp://tinyurl.com/???â.â>http://tinyurl.com/???â. The meaning is in the link, not in the tweet. If those url-shorteners go away, weâre all kind of SOL."
Iâm not convinced. Twitterâs whole principle is âthrowaway thoughtsâ. Should we really consider the links a vital resource for the future?
The problem started with websites that use rediculously large URLs to begin with:
If I want to simply link to amazonâs Code Complete book here is the URL that I need:
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670%3FSubscriptionId%3D15HRV3AZSMPK0GXTY102%26tag%3Die8suggestion-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0735619670
So, URL shortening (and all itâs led to) is simply an industry response to websites using complex URLs.
Most good Twitter clients (I use TwitterFox) will not only perform the magic of automatic URL shortening, but when you hover over a shortened link will perform the magic of URL longening.
Is tinyurl.com/ks6h38 really any less readable than codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001276.html?
Unless we force full semantic web, these services usefulness will outweigh their shortcomings and people will develop nicely integrated reverse lookups to span the shortcomings.
Actually, this is history.
The web has been leveraged far beyond what one would have expected. Along comes a rather silly app (you know it is when it is referenced on the news daily and even your grandmother uses it) with a limitation â which causes a major transformation. By accident.
I think that the 140 character limit will go down in history as one of the top 5 decisions that shaped the world wide web.
If Twitter standardised on one URL shortening service, and did it all automatically, they could send out shortened URLs only to SMS users. Thatâs the only case where shortened URLs are at all useful.
Readers on the web and those who read through desktop and mobile applications would get the full version of the URL, perhaps truncated for display. http://rossshannon.com/2009/04/17/twitter-and-urls/
I donât give a ratâs about shortened URLs or Twitter.
They are both irrelevant. Please focus on things that actually matter.
No matter how you look at it shortened URLs arenât hurting anyone. Itâs not âevilâ like crime, itâs not even âbadâ like natural disasters. No - itâs an annoyance of yours, just like twitter is an annoyance of mine.
âEvery tiny URL is another baby step towards destroying the web as we know it.â
Iâm sorry, Iâll just stop taking you seriously there.
@Matt Nowack
"I tinyurl.com/ks6h38 really any less readable than codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001276.html?"
Yes it is as you donât know where in the world will you end up by clicking tinyurl.com/xxxxxx
The domain name is hidden. Hurray for phishing I guess.
rel, itâs possible to use ISBN-10 in Amazon URLs, but itâs not easy to figure out.
http://amazon.com/s?field-isbn=0735619670
Itâs still too long.
Iâm not a twit, so I donât use Twitter. End of problem, as far as Iâm concerned.