A URL Lengthener • Hacker News Board

Re: A URL Lengthener

#261

Post by mobjack » Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:24 PM UTC

Closi wrote: post #258

cube00 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can use onclick and leave the href attribute alone.

I'm sure this is something they have considered as their own analytics program uses onclick to track outbound traffic - I assume it's a mix of speed, reliability and the ability to track without javascript. Plus, if it was done on OnClick there would definitely be an add-on to disable the tracking on all browsers.

There are some privacy reasons for it.

A direct link from a search page will let websites see the search terms that users entered in to navigate there.

Google still knows everything so it doesn't protect you from them, but websites are more in the dark what users were doing before clicking the link.

Re: A URL Lengthener

#262

Post by piemadd » Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

log101 wrote: post #260

I'm not an advanced programmer, so can somebody explain me why would you collect "insights" for a such made-as-a-joke service.

I added a little desc to the footer. TLDR its simply to see num of users and i've made the dashboard itself public so you can see for yourself.

Re: A URL Lengthener

#263

Post by piemadd » Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

bscphil wrote: post #201

Dumb question: the lengthener prepends the URL with "\x20\x0b" strings which are then not removed on the other end. So the link inserted in the redirect ends up looking like " \x0b \x0b \x0bhttps://www.example.org" But this apparently works! Why does it work?

so what you're seeing is the creation of a zero width space. When you combine an \x20 and an \x0b, it makes a zero width space, which your browser ends up ignoring. Only reason these are in there are to ensure the URLs are at a minimum length. Who wants a mere 20 character URL when you can have a minimum of 250 characters.

Re: A URL Lengthener

#264

Post by piemadd » Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

timwis wrote: post #244

I’m hiring a head of cyber security at the moment. I think I’ll use this or shadyurl.com to send the zoom link.

Well I made the URL lengthener so you should obviously hire me /s

Re: A URL Lengthener

#265

Post by piemadd » Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

ghkbrew wrote: post #198

Now they need to register every aaaa... domain from ~20-50 characters so all you need to do is hold the "a" key for a little bit.

my wallet weeps

Re: A URL Lengthener

#266

Post by piemadd » Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

soheil wrote: post #131

The problem with this is that when I hold and press "a" in the address bar on mac at least alternate characters menu pops up instead of the key being repeated. I'd suggest this new domain: 1234567890qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm.com

Only problem is that i'd have to pay 700 dollars lol

Re: A URL Lengthener

#267

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Re: A URL Lengthener

#268

Post by nayuki » Sat, May 15, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

A nice feature is that when you design a URL lengthener, you can make the service stateless. The backend doesn't need to store every URL that it was ever given. This contrasts with URL shortener services, which must store state in order to generate very short URLs. (In theory, shorteners can use stateless compression like zlib, but it wouldn't save enough space to be worth it.)

Re: A URL Lengthener

#269

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 15, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: A URL Lengthener

#270

Post by whiterace1488 » Sat, May 15, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

fomine3 wrote: post #253

patrickmcnamara wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or when you Google something and copy a link straight from their search page. Novel-length URLs.

Copying canonical PDF link from Google result on Android device is extremely frustrating because Chrome Android doesn't support to open PDF so it opens reader app. Anyone have solution?

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