First of all, I need to thank people who acted as human google for me. Go go twitter power:
@ChrisMuncy
@SystemicBabble
@AntiFreeze
@frozensummers
@Kiritsugu
@P_Trussell
@alexhopkinson
@Xoke
@purplemecha
@nicktabick
@robots_unix
@Jedi_Kez
@nascentt
@JeffreyPia
@sep332
@HaDAk
@FreeTraininOnLi
@JuliusTheOrange
@GeneralBison
Back on Friday I asked a question about tools to lengthen URLs. This is a service I feel I need for regular browsing, not just twitter. I completely understand the need for URL shortening, especially when you have limited space to work with! I know that I use them myself so I am not casting stones here. That said, when I see them in blogs and IMs and IRC, I get suspicious. Even though these are my friends there’s something in the back of my head that goes “Hmmmmmm….”.
It’s comforting to know that the people who provide the shortening services also provide tools to expand them. It shows that they realized the potential for abuse and took steps to combat that. Joshmeister‘s excellent post on the subject summarizes how to handle previews for popular individual services. There are also some handy Firefox plugins to manage such duties. Brizzly and HootSuite are some of the many twitter clients that make such things automatic. HootSuite actually looks pretty kick ass and I might give that a try next. I’m so boring. I’ve had Brizzly since it was an invite-only thing and I only remember to use it sometimes instead of the twitter website.
While all those things are wonderful, perhaps you are unable to change your clients or modify your browser to accommodate them. Enter LONGURL.com *cue dramatic music* It does just what the name says it does. I love it and can’t believe I didn’t know it existed before!
Thanks again to all the contributors above!! You guys rock. I was oblivious about most of these tools until my readers came through, so I hope you this post helps others, too :)
But I’m not done yet: Another link pet-peeve of mine involves all these sites that include scripts so that copying and pasting anything from their site automatically appends “and go to <blankety blank> to read more!”. No, go away. You do not get to dictate our internet experience. If we wanted to send a full link, we would have. In fact, we probably started with a link already and then attempted to highlight the part we wanted to discuss. I keep a sticky note on my desktop so I can test paste before inflicting it upon my friends. Am I just being ridiculous here? It’s not a major thing to take a stand on but it annoys me just the same.
{ 5 comments }
I haven’t come across the “and go to to read more!” thing yet, but if I did I’d probably just view source and copy the text from that.
As I use NoScript in Firefox anyway, probably means the javascript to do such text blocking wouldn’t occur for me anyway.
Glad to help, Jenn. <3
We need to bust some ghosts some day soon!
No, you’re not being unreasonable. You are annoyed because you are dealing with webmasters who are trying to interfere with your internet experience deliberately, not merely messing with it by accident.
It’s not a minor thing to take a stand on. Messing with your user interface is unforgivable. Anger seems exactly appropriate.
Many may not care, but see xkcd #743 for why they might care in ten years.
Jenn, I’m sorry for letting my language fall over there. The correct word is ‘interfere’.
Taken care of! It’s all good. Trust me, I’m a hockey player. I know far worse words that I hear used on a rather regular basis. I believe I even typed “cockpunch” the other day. More than once! ;)
Comments on this entry are closed.