Jarrod Trainque

7Jul

urlKiss - another URL-shortening service

Posted 1 year, 4 months ago - 3 comments

It’s been awhile since I did any web development, so last night I built a little website, urlKiss.com.

It’s another url-shortening service, like tinyURL. It turns long URLS like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox
-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=zlW&q=scooters
&btnG=Search

into smaller ones like this:

http://urlkiss.com/l

Here’s how you might use such a service:

  • in lieu of long URLs, which sometimes break (e.g. in emails)
  • as a means to mask your target URL
  • in mobile devices, where space is limited and typing characters is difficult.
  • in web services with character limitations (e.g. twitter.com)

UrlKiss lacks a lot of features right now, but it works. My goal with this little project is to get more practice in PHP, mysql, and apache administration.

Some features I hope to add:

  • copy-to-clipboard feature
  • one-click bookmarklet
  • the ability to append each URL with a note indicating target URL
  • preview urls via http://p.urlkiss.com/id
  • anti-spam features
  • get a random url via http://r.urlkiss.com/id
  • url “join” tool via http://join.urlkiss.com/id
  • more integration with online apps (like twitter)

Anyway, have a look, and feel free to use it. Comments, suggestions, & thoughts welcome.

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3 Comments

  1. Comment by Erik Mallinson — July 20, 2007 @ 3:42 pm

    Does it store each URL that someone pastes into it? I tried trainque.com and got /1 … which seems to me to be the first one you’d probably type in too.

  2. Comment by Jarrod — July 21, 2007 @ 6:32 pm

    Yeah, it’s optimized to automatically reuse shortened URLs… so no matter how many times you try to shorten http://trainque.com, you’ll always get /1.

  3. Comment by hukilo — September 1, 2008 @ 10:23 am

    I suggest sn.vc as it got a short domain and filled with useful features.

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