Very long URLs look bad, take up a lot of character space, are a nightmare to share with other people, etc. That's where URL shorteners come in.
Do you use some online services like bitly and tinyurl?
Or use some extensions, like URL Shotener?
Maybe you use some automated solution?
What is your way of dealing with long URLs?
Top comments (17)
I don't like them, in general.
In my own software I try to avoid making long URLs in the first place.
There's no reason that something readable like
https://mycoolsite.website/blog/2020/01/01/my-new-years-resolutionsshould be considered a "nightmare". If you're sharing a bit.ly URL with someone else, then you have to paste it to them or speak "doublyew, m for mother, no, EMMM I said, can you hear me?" the same as any random string.And long strings with a million query parameters are usually deep links to things like search results which are inherently fragile. And speaking of fragile, you're adding an extra point of failure for no good reason.
When including the link on a page you control, you'll probably put the name of the destination page or something descriptive in as the text link, so that's not a problem.
URL shorteners cause problems. They can lead to anything, a shock site, a rick roll, malware... anything. Want to find that cool item on sale a friend pasted you on your messenger? Good luck identifying it among all the other shortened URLs they sent you unless they took the time to describe what the link is... which they wouldn't have to do if it was the original text.
No, the real "problem" URL shorteners solve is tracking people, and bypassing things like the GDPR.
Remind me why that's a good thing? Who knows what the owner of the shortener does with your collected data!
Whenever I use Bitly I always customize the slug portion at the end to be more readable and relevant. That way you get the best of both words, short and readable.
It also helps me remember what the shortened link is pointing to
Good points there 😉💯
Also, if I use a shortened link I always feel unsafe about how long will it work, as it's been handled by a third party 😉
Yeah, that's what I mean by it adding a point of failure :)
I am using drect.net for my shorting stuff. It's free and usefull. Simple, powerful & recognizable links! Brand, track, and share your short links, engage with your users on a different level.
My friend @nyior created his own URL shortener. The best thing about it is, you just need to use the chrome plugin to shorten the URL which is very easy and handy.
A Better Way to Shorten Your URLs
Nyior Clement Jr. ・ Dec 30 '20 ・ 1 min read
Thanks for sharing, will check it out! 😉👍
We are also open to feedback; please do leave a review if you find it useful, or if there is anything that you think needs to be improved.
Thank you Maulik!
Bitly!
bitly
s.id is Indonesian url shortener. Even in free account there are option for custom url and statistic
note: i dont know the about performance
Cutly
From bitly, I switched to cutly and now I just use duckduckgo's URL shortener.
I am using vexx.cf for my shorting stuff. It's free and usefull.
bitly is awesome, I did a MVP version of it by using this reference
educative.io/courses/grokking-the-...