Avoid Long URLs on Twitter - Technology Evangelist

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Sebastian Franck on:
Avoid Long URLs on Twitter
Mike - digitalmedia TORONTO on:
Avoid Long URLs on Twitter
Ed Kohler on:
Avoid Long URLs on Twitter
Tony on:
Avoid Long URLs on Twitter

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Avoid Long URLs on Twitter

Dear Mr. Steve Rubel,

I love what you have been doing with Twitter lately. The stream of consciousness tweets on things that you find interesting is interesting to me.

However, you've got to get in the habit of using TinyURLs for everything. Let me show you why.

Here is what your long URL Tweets look like on Twitter:

Long, broken, and unusable.

The same tweet almost works on Google Reader where it doesn't become unlinked at something shorter than the entire URL:

However, what really gets me is viewing long URLs from you in Google Reader Mobile. Take a look at what that looks like:

Google Reader Mobile and Horizontal Scrolling

Notice the horizontal scroll bar? That one long URL makes the 9 tweets on that page basically unreadable. And it's all your fault. :-)

Yeah yeah. I know you probably already know this, but I thought it may be worth reinforcing for you and other heavy Twitter users.

Thanks.

-Ed

PS: This applies to email as well although email is more tolerant that Twitter when it comes to long URLs.

Listen to this article posted by Ed Kohler on August 7, 2007 10:35 AM | Permalink
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Comments

1. Posted by: Tony on August 8, 2007 10:44 AM:

Dear Mr. Evangelist,

I never click on a tiny url. It's like opening a can with no label. You never know what might be in it.

2. Posted by: Ed Kohler on August 8, 2007 12:37 PM:

Good point, Tony. There does appear to be an etiquette being built around prefacing TinyURL links. If it's coming from a trusted source, I don't worry much about what I'll find, but if it's a non trusted source I may be skeptical.

Also, I see destination URLs of TinyURLs when I mouse over the links in FireFox. I don't remember if that's tied into the browser or an extension.

3. Posted by: Mike - digitalmedia TORONTO on August 15, 2007 12:25 PM:

I agree with Ed, if I see a TinyURL on a Twitter post then I am reasonably sure I can trust it, after all it is usually someone who I want to listen to.

I only picked up on this Tiny URL by seeing it over and over and over again on Twitter. Now I use it all the time even in emails. Clients appreciate the brevity.

4. Posted by: Sebastian Franck on March 4, 2008 6:54 AM:

Use twhirl. It has tinyurl built right into the interface. Just click "shorten URL" and paste the long URL, and there you have it: a nice short URL in your tweet.

Cheers,

Sebastian

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