Meaningful, short URLs

I’ve been a fan of TinyURL for some time, and I blogged about it recently. TinyURL converts long, unmemorable web addresses into tiny web addresses. For example, TinyURL converts the address:

http://www.rosevines.org/blog/2008/1/25/troubleshooting-a-google-slow-down-makes-me-think-about-dump.html

into:

http://tinyurl.com/ytgp26

That’s much easier to type correctly into your browser and works well in email, where long addresses are often broken. The TinyURL is also permanent: once you create it, it can be used by anyone, anywhere, at any time; if you try to create a TinyURL for a previously-Tiny-ed site, you’ll be given the same shortcut URL.

The only trouble is, these short URLs are just as unmemorable as their long equivalents. If you want to return to the site, you’ll need to have stored or written down the TinyURL.

Moourl performs the same miniaturisation trick as TinyURL, but goes one better. It generates a small, randomly generated series of characters, such as:

http://moourl.com/bgw81

and it then gives you the option of assigning your own 20-character Moo address as well. So that initial long address could end up as:

http://moourl.com/blogslowdown

Now that’s short and easy to recall.

Comments

[Home Staging Toronto]

I do lik ethe idea and the technique to remember these blog names, but then again.....they are not as effective in search engines this way !