Shorter Links, Please

In the weeks ahead, I am going to write a column (or two) called: “Web Stuff I Hate” — things I would fix for good if I could. There’s the obvious stuff, like junk e-mail, but I want to go beyond the obvious. I’d like to get your help, so please send your ideas — starting the sentence with “I HATE…” — to poynter@sree.net (with your name and affiliation). I will run them, as long as they aren’t along the lines of “I hate columnists who rely on readers to come up with all the good ideas.”

To get us started, here are two things I hate.

I HATE… websites that don’t have easy-to-find phone numbers on the homepage. If the site’s a small one, fine, I can understand the lack of a phone number. But when I come across commercial sites — especially media sites or ones trying to sell something — that don’t have a phone number listed, I get mad. So a plea to all you webmasters out there: phone numbers please. Learn from the Poynter site: there’s a number at the bottom of EVERY page.

I HATE…long URLs, (i.e. site and story addresses). Because of complex “site architecture,” URLs are growing ever longer. For security and in order to preserve the integrity of individual pages, there is a need for long addresses. Doesn’t mean I can’t hate ’em, especially those that arrive via e-mail when friends send links (sometimes, these links, which can be 2-4 lines long, get broken and then when you click, nothing happens).

An example: Here is the URL for the MapQuest map for the Poynter neighborhood:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&address=801+third+st+south&city=
st.+petersburg&state=fl&zipcode=&homesubmit=Get+Map
That’s way too long for my taste — and often, my e-mail reader.

The solution: Free services that shorten your URL for you, giving you a short link you can forward. Among them: TinyURL.com and MakeAShorterLink.com.

My new favorite is SnURL.com, the shorter URL of SnipURL.com (which goes to the same page). Cut and paste a long URL into Snurl and it gives you a shorter URL you can then share. The MapQuest map, once SnURL-ed, becomes just http://snurl.com/2cpo (just 21 characters, the original had 145). But the feature I like on SnURL is called SNIP THIS! If you use Internet Explorer, you can drag a small link labeled “Snip This!” onto your links bar in the browser. After that, whenever you are on a page with a long URL, you don’t need to go back to SnURL. Just click on Snip This! and you get a snipped version in a pop-up window.

Three other useful things it does: That pop-up window closes automatically in 15 seconds (wish I could say the same for pop-up ads around the web); you need not hit copy (CTRL-C) or cut (CTRL-X) to copy the shorter URL. It gets added to your computer’s “clipboard” and all you have to do is hit paste (CTRL-V); and you can create a personalized, unique ending for the short URL.

These are all features you can use without registering. If you register, there are several intriguing features you can try. [I have not tested SnURL on a Mac, but the basic features should work fine — any input, Mac folks?]

Your turn: What do you hate? Let me know at  poynter@sree.net. 

Incidentally, the Poynter.org staff has already created a shortcut for the archive of the WebTips column: http://livex.poynter.org/web; for individual columns, you can use SnURL.

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