Should Twitter really count URL characters against you?
My Clippings September 13th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
Filed under: Text, Features, Social Software, Analysis
URL shorteners, while convenient, are bad for the web. They hide the true destination that they are pointing to, giving bad guys yet another tool in their arsenal, while conditioning web users to blindly trust the links they are clicking on. Further, as the debacle with tr.im showed us, URL shortening services aren’t necessarily permanent.
It’s no coincidence that the rise in popularity of URL shorteners closely mirrors the rise in popularity of Twitter; Twitter’s 140 character limit is the special ingredient that makes Twitter so compelling, but it’s also what made short URLs valuable. Some of you will say that short URLs are useful for other reasons – for example, in print. True, but Twitter is by far the place they are used most.
So, with a 140 character limit, how could Twitter eliminate URL shorteners? Well, first, let’s look at the reason for the 140 character limit in the first place. It was chosen because Twitter expected SMS messages to be the primary way that users would interact with the service. While there are many users using it that way, their numbers are far eclipsed by the number of users using Twitter on its native web site, or using one of the plentiful Twitter client apps that are available for both desktop computers and mobile phones.
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Enable mod_rewrite in APACHE
Code August 21st, 2009 by Shai Perednik
With all the hullabaloo lately relating to tr.im‘s closure and reopening most people are opting to setup their own shortning service.
There’s Lessn and Yourls. Both are great but Yours takes the cake for the admin panel and more detailed info. I followed the LifeHacker Tutorial, but couldn’t get mod_rewrite working. With the help of this post I figured it out.
change the following line in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default
DocumentRoot /var/www/ <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride all </Directory> <Directory /var/www/> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride all Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory>
then restart apache
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Theres also a bookmarklet for Yourls from twitter.com/jarbro but I’m still working on getting past the “Unknown” error.
UPDATE: The unknown error is normal. You just need to drag the links to the bookmark bar.
I have to install php5-curl just to get the curl_init() function installed
sudo apt-get php5-curl
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Hopefully this helps someone
Tags: apache, blockquote, Bookmarklet, CURL, IO, mod_rewrite, php, Sudo, tr.im, Ubuntu
Forget Tr.im: Start Your Own URL Shortener
My Clippings August 20th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
If the recent shutdown (and subsequent re-opening) of Tr.im showed us anything, it’s that URL shortening services are a fickle and delicate thing. There are countless services out there, sure, but there’s no telling when your favorite will cave under the weight of its own server fees.
As Lifehacker points out, however, “anyone who’s got $10 for a domain name registration, and a creative short URL idea, can host, monitor, and control their shortened links.” The site has a quick tutorial for Yourls, which helps users create short redirects using their own domains.
The app is a WordPress plugin that works with any domain hosting service that accepts that platform.
Make Your Own URL Shortening Service [Feature]
My Clippings August 15th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
URL shortening services are ubiquitous on Twitter and other cramped online spaces. They won’t all last, as tr.im has demonstrated, and their shutdowns could annihilate your linking history. If you own a domain, though, you can host your own service.
Even if you consider the links you’ve shortened for Facebook, Twitter, IMs and other services to be just of-the-moment, nothing-serious items that aren’t worth backing up, leaving a host of dead links lingering around the net isn’t good for anybody, or anybody’s searches. There’s not a lot you can do about your already-posted social network links, but anyone who’s got $10 for a domain name registration, and a creative short URL idea, can host, monitor, and control their shortened links.
We’re going to run through a basic installation of Yourls, a server-based webapp that can run pretty much anywhere a WordPress installation can. There are lots of other options, which we’ll get to as well, but Yourls is a fairly smart and fast way to get up and running with your own URL shortener.
What you’ll need
- Hosted or DIY server space: That space must be running at least PHP 4.3, MySQL 4.1, and with “
mod_rewrite” enabled. In plain English, that’s most any mainstream web server an individual pays about $5/month to for basic hosting. For DIY server types, any installation of LAMP on Linux, WAMP on Windows, or MAMP on a Mac. If you’re going the DIY route with a Windows system, our guide to setting up and hosting a blog on your computer covers many of the basics of patching your own web-facing system together. - A domain name: You’ll preferably want something short, which can be difficult in the super-saturated .com/.biz/.net market. You might get inspired and lucky, but you also might need to pay just a bit more for an international top-level domain (TLD)—the part after the period, like .tv, .nl, and the like—which can cost between $15-$90. The URL used in the screenshots up top is an example, albeit not really feasible, unless I figure out how to buy a straight-up Nicaraguan TLD.
- Access to your server files: Whether you use an FTP client (like one of our readers’ five picks), a command line, or your host’s web access, you’ll need to copy one folder over somewhere on your server.
Tags: Bookmarklet, Extract, Google, IO, Linux, Mac, mod_rewrite, php, script, tr.im, way, wind, WordPress, XP
