Making Your Own URL Shortener (opens in new tab)

(blog.skywelch.io)

5 points_gg508y ago6 comments

6 comments

Don't use or create a URL shortener. They are only ever useful to spammers, they're a security risk, and they break the web[1].

1. https://t37.net/why-link-shorteners-harm-your-readers-and-de...

_gg50OP8y ago

I'm inclined to agree that the use of large URL shorteners obfuscates things too much and can contribute to spam.

However, this is a personal domain for my use only. And I don't think you can simply dismiss the usefulness of being able to track link usage and referrers without using nasty client-side JS stuff.

I'm also using "shortcodes" rather than random IDs for most stuff so the intent isn't lost.

takno8y ago

The only thing that really bothers me personally about shorteners is not knowing where I'm going to end up, and not being able to identify articles I've read before. A shortener with a dedicated domain and user-chosen ids should cover that just fine. The only outstanding issue in the article is a single extra DNS lookup, which is pretty minor compared to the massive chains which were causing the problem.

1 more reply

smt888y ago

Using it yourself isn't the same as instructing other people how to do it.

Using it for a personal domain is likely going to hurt your SEO. You can track behavior on the server side without JS just as easily without short URLs.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

6 comments

smt888y ago

Don't use or create a URL shortener. They are only ever useful to spammers, they're a security risk, and they break the web[1].

1. https://t37.net/why-link-shorteners-harm-your-readers-and-de...

_gg50OP8y ago

I'm inclined to agree that the use of large URL shorteners obfuscates things too much and can contribute to spam.

However, this is a personal domain for my use only. And I don't think you can simply dismiss the usefulness of being able to track link usage and referrers without using nasty client-side JS stuff.

I'm also using "shortcodes" rather than random IDs for most stuff so the intent isn't lost.

takno8y ago

1 more reply

smt888y ago

Using it yourself isn't the same as instructing other people how to do it.

Using it for a personal domain is likely going to hurt your SEO. You can track behavior on the server side without JS just as easily without short URLs.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse