December 2009

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Consider this shortened URL: http://tr.im/Ikgq - What does it mean to you?

Don't take this the wrong way all those who routinely use this technique to drive people to their tweet reference or simply to download some cool software. I use try not to use URL shortening to get into my twitter snippets, but still I have my doubts when I do...

I have decided once and for all that a series of keywords is a muuuuch better way of helping people reference content. This can be seen in Human (+ Computer) friendly urls that end in word references '/home/my/content/', for example. But even if you are confronted with 'page.html?cat=1&page=2' - you will at least immediately have some idea of the source (assuming it is not a redirect in itself)... eg. The domain name, ie. 'http://webhaven.eu/webhaven_international_blog.html?...'

I thought about the issues that this URL shortening may pose to many people.
Here is a list of issues I came up with, perhaps clearly not complete - if you have more please help me out...

  1. Link Rot
  2. Reference point missing
  3. Mis-direction possibilities
  4. Human and Machine unreadable
  5. Total Annihilation

This was what occurred to me before I started my own search on the subject and discovered (naturally) I am not the only one who has deep concerns about the mis-use of URL shortening.

I'd like to at least reference a number of links that point to the issues I am talking about.

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TinyURL#Criticism 
  2. http://joshua.schachter.org/2009/04/on-url-shorteners.html 

Arguably these two links are way better than a shortened URL, ie. http://bit.ly/DHEYsc  (Note: This link demonstrates a dead link.), simply because they specifically describe various content described in the webpage entries.

The second example goes as far as to tell me the month and year of the post, which is extremely helpful if I was say, looking for a fix to a software bug that exists now, not 3 years ago...

Our blog software has a combination of the two, it helps to stay just that little more obvious than a seemingly random reference number. In this way we are practicing a method of publishing content which has more emphasis on the importance of the content. It is likely a subjective argument, like which method is best, as to what you actually want to achieve in the user experience. Try copy pasting this full URL into your browser URL bar... 

http://webhaveninternational.com/webhaven_international_blog?viewid=1780#Nokia 2730 Classic plugin for Apple iSync 

Did you already guess where the link was taking you? Here we made a short link + a direct link (anchor) to the article, this anchor describes the content in more detail. It both provides simple direct links for Google, the text after # is removed cleanly, and for Human, a jump to the article and a pre-warning of what you are about to see.

Note that we also have the date archive available for those following us... You see 'December 2009' in the URL using ISO style formatting and you will expect to see all the blog posts for 12/2009. ie. http://webhaven.eu/webhaven_international_blog ?archive=2009-12

The best a URL shortener can do is seen on preview.tinyurl.com - you can use a Preview URL. That way a user goes to tinyurl, inspects the link, and can choose to proceed. Seems annoying to me, time is precious.

So what of my list? Why did I think of these 5 things?

1. Link Rot
If you make a tinyurl and then say, a blogger, drops their page or even their entire site? Or changes the reference on the page which happens a lot - what was it you linked to again? This is a Rotten Link. It is a way to frustrate users looking for specific content. This is going to be especially annoying if other people are referencing a site especially via Google.

I'd like to reference Eric Woodward who mentions the possibility: http://blog.tr.im/post/165049236/tr-im-to-be-community-owned 

"But by so clearly favouring the URL shortener bit.ly, Twitter is able to control this flow of shared link data in a way it would not otherwise be able to. Currently, no one outside of the chosen few can access this data, and that is just not right. 

I sincerely hope that Twitter and other aspiring social networks allow users to attach links to their status updates outside of any arbitrary character limitation, preventing the looming crisis of link-rot that bit.ly/twitter is potentially creating."

However he notes that this project exists: http://www.301works.org/ - so all is not lost :) But why start it? My guess, fashion... and basic practicalities in response to fashionable trends like very short messaging (vsm) on facebook, twitter, email.
Another good link to a similar article lamenting a potential disaster.

2. Reference Point Missing
Here is my big problem that just basically frustrates and could mis-lead to the point of fraud ie. Phishing
If a user of your posts can not easily verify the terminating domain (we assume your link is not a redirect), it causes a gap in information and therefore faulty knowledge + eventual mis-trust. I am starting to become suspicious of any shortened URL's simply because they equate to SPAM. Give me a good Domain Reference Point and I'll likely clickity click click, if it seems useful.

3. Mis-direction possible
Is it conceivable that bit.ly or tinyurl could be hacked... And is it conceivable that the Iranian Liberation Army could create a silly DNS attack and simply redirect ALL YOUR LINKS to a politically inflammable site?!! Be aware that you are giving away links and losing all control. Another point noted by out tr.im reference, Eric Woodward.

"Currently, no one outside of the chosen few can access this data, and that is just not right." 

4. Human + Machine unreadable
During our recent release of the iSync iPhone I was saddened to see some shortened URL's linking directly to the post on a forum. I admit it was nice surprise to find our link there, and we are pleased people felt this plugin was useful, but even I was unsure where the link went, until I clicked it. If you are posting to a Forum where link length is not an issue - please use the complete URL.

(Our URL would have been particularly useful in that case for readers) 
 

5. Total Annihilation
Well, if it isn't totally obvious what I mean here based on what I've said so far - tr.im was a perfect example of the risk that is - Link Disappearance.
If you rely on or like to follow help sites, forums, discussions even Twitter posts and we discover that a business like bit.ly or tinyurl is well, gone, 'Good Luck' on getting all your links back. I do note that the 'scramble' that is 301works.org, will help preserve this disappearing Internet, but don't rely on other people to maintain your integrity.
 
I have not even started on my ideas on Link Management, like a way to tell people your links are gone... For what ever reason - it is just not easy I guess. At the moment it seems to be a one way street - you make short links, but can not and will never re-create them.
 
URL shortening is thus clearly a Double Edged Sword. It creates all these problems going in, and without the ability to manage, cuts even deeper on the way out again. Do yourself a favour, and everyone else looking for useful information, only URL shorten SPAM urls, like ones that don't really matter or you want people to visit when they have free time. Try to give people meaningful URL's when linking to software, news articles or other important or useful information - it all helps, every second of the day. 

 


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