Better short URLs

Posted on Sep 8th, 2009 by Chris M.

Recently a bunch of people have been proposing ways to produce short URLs without relying on 3rd parties (tr.im nearly shutting down definitely hit home the need for this discussion).  One option was the rev=”canonical” attribute.  Others have been various rel values.  I like what PHP.net has done—just combine them all and see which one wins out:

<link rev="canonical" rel="self alternate shorter shorturl shortlink" href="..." />

I haven’t yet implemented my own short URLs, but when I do I think that the way I’ll go.

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  • http://lordspace.wordpress.com/ Slavi

    Maybe goo.gl ?

    • http://cmorrell.com Chris Morrell

      But the point is that rather than using a 3rd-party shortener, you can use the short URL provided by the content provider. Chances are flic.kr is going to be around as long as flickr.com exists, but there’s no guarantee that bit.ly or even goo.gl will exist. Giving control over the short URLs to the content providers is good for just about everyone (except for the existing shortening services).

  • http://www.juegos.gs Juegos

    First time I hear about rev=”canonical”, an interesting concept.