So I’m on Twitter (1)… (why, oh why??). It’s pretty straightforward and once you get up and around I could see its usefulness. Still, one of the biggest problems I noticed with Twitter was when it was in the character restriction mode (140 characters or less) – it wasn’t such a problem in the beginning, but I noticed that I wanted to link to my pieces. Affiliate Content from Yahoo! (2) I had a real problem adding any color to the front. Characters in an Associated Content of mine on average are around 90 characters; that is, more than half of the characters in the post are received from the home.
This presented a real problem that almost threw me off the Twitter bandwagon. However, I have noticed that other people connect with these very small and short links. I did some research and found out about the TinyURL service (3). TinyURL is a service that comes before Twitter and is basically derived from making long URLs shorter. Anonymous email, searching for TinyURL email addresses, has a few problems, which however make this kind of end insurmountable.
Spam: One of the most common things that people might worry about when using TinyURL is the issue of spam. They seem to have found a way around this by claiming: “TinyURL is a free service made to make it easier to manage long URLs, and can only be used for actual URLs. Using it for spamming or illegal use is prohibited and any such use will result in TinyURL being disabled and to all ISPs involved and report to the appropriate government agencies.” Pretty strong words from the website. Still, spam isn’t the only potential problem that can arise from a service like TinyURL.
Limited number of URLs: You would like to see a really open problem with a service like TinyURL exactly what the character of a restricted site like Twitter only exacerbates. If TinyURL was widely used in academic or news circles and wasn’t very popular, I would think it would matter less. Although everyone with a medium cooking thought and a webcam is on Twitter, posting images, audio, links, opinion. So what happens when TinyURL also runs spaces? Then TinyURL starts taking longer and longer! Without individual identifiers (like “AssociatedContent.JesseSchmitt.TinyURLarticle.com) the TinyURL service is bound to start repeating the URL! So what?
Conclusion: While it started with good intentions, TinyURL seems like an impossible provider. I like the last part of the disclaimer on their site “This service is provided without any warranty.” The worst part is; one day it will not be your home. The TinyURL Proclaimer is just a testament to a greater truth about life; in the words of W.B. Yeats: “Everything falls and is built again.”
Sources:
http://twitter.com/Jesse_Schmitt (1)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/59087/jesse_schmitt.html (2)
http://tinyurl.com/ (3)
