Comments for DecentURL

BTW, the inspiration for this project came from this comment by user serhei on programming.reddit.

Edit: serhai -> serhei. Thanks. :-)

Wow, just as I was figuring out bookmarklets, rnc000 makes one for me. Thanks, that’s superb! I’ll add a “tools” page from DecentURL and post it there soon.

I might also add a non-auto-POST version that lets you edit the title it grabs before you submit. For pro-choice people. :-) I’m also planning some Ajax which auto-grabs a title after you paste in a URL, again, so you can okay it before you submit.

Cheers, rnc000.

Edit: BTW, nedra, would a decent Firefox bookmarklet do the same trick as a plugin?

I’ve now added bookmarklets with “let you review it” and “submit automatically” versions – check ‘em at decenturl.com/tools. I find the first one real handy, as it lets you edit the title before you submit if you want.

And I’ve also just added some code to do an Ajax instant-grab of the title just after you’ve typed or pasted it in. You can then modify it to taste before you submit.

Thanks, rp0299.

Okay, I’ve updated a few things:

• Changed the main DecentURL creator form to a GET (you can still use the old POST /create though). Note: it’s idempotent so there shouldn’t be GET vs POST issues.

• Modified Ajax title-grabber to be more explicit. It now only grab the title when you leave the URL field or when you click the “grab title” link. And if you’ve edited the title, it’ll only grab if you manually click the link. Edit: reverted to automatic version. See below.

• Added bookmarklets that open in a new tab, suggested by Joerg Schumann. See decenturl.com/tools

• Few other behind-the-scenes fixes that should make things a tad smoother.

Do contact me if you have any more feedback.

-Ben

Another small update: reverted Ajax title-grabber back to automatic version, but fixed the bugs. :-) Also added a copy-to-clipboard feature to the result page after you’ve created a decent URL.

Naises, that’s not a bad idea. I may well implement that. The URLs would be the same length, and it is slightly better for the reason you give – the domain corresponds to the original domain and the path to the original path (but more decent).

Also, another “update note”: DecentURL now has an API. Have a play with it at decenturl.com/tools#api

Hi disorganic, as it happens, I’m working on a few DecentURL features right now: edit your URLs, count clicks, and get emailed when your URLs break. Some of them are premium services, meaning you’ll only have access to them if you pay a small fee, but it’ll be pretty tiny – on the order of $5.

In short, give me another week or two. :-)

Update: I’ve mostly finished these features, but am heading away for a holiday now, so don’t want to rush-release it before I go. :-)

I’ve just implemented Naises’ feature so that DecentURL creates links like youtube.decenturl.com/medieval instead of decenturl.com/youtube/medieval. Same length, but slightly better because the resulting domain corresponds to the original domain. Of course, all old-style decent URLs still work fine. :-)

I’ve just launched some premium services for DecentURL, so you can now edit your URLs, view click counts for them, or detect broken links (link rot). If you donate $7.00 or more to this project or you’ve already donated, you’ll get life-long access to these features. :-)

Read more about the premium services here.

Hi gibraltar123, thanks for the link to URLSmash. Maybe I’m just biased, but IMHO DecentURL‘s links are more “organised” than URLSmash’s, because they keep (part of) the original domain in there, making it hard for people to redirect you to dodgy sites or whatever without you knowing it. Also, DecentURL’s link structure is domain.decenturl.com/pagename – which matches the link structure of a normal website. My thoughts. :-)