Mike's Thoughts

So I recently discovered the wonder that is tinyurl. If you have never heard of this service, allow me to elaborate. Think back to a time when you wanted to send a friend a link to a webpage, but the URL looked something like this:

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=~CMTYDataSvcParams^~arg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032340737%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f^~sParams^~%2fsParams^~%2fCMTYDataSvcParams^

Kinda mind boggling and a bit annoying, right? Enter tinyurl. Tinyurl is a service that allows you to create a ridiculously short URL that redirects to some ridiculously long URL, for free. The URL can be randomly generated, or you can attempt to make your own. What’s more, the URLs supposidly don’t expire, so when your friend decides to hide out in a cave for three years, you have the comfort of knowing that when they return to civilization, your tinyurl will be there, waiting for them!

I made a tinyurl for the link above, and it came out something like this:

http://tinyurl.com/3vkaen

Now sure, that looks a little conspicuous, but if you really want to be sure where it goes, just stick “preview.” before tinyurl, and it will take you to the tinyurl site, where you will see the entire link that it will redirect you to. (In this example, http://preview.tinyurl.com/3vkaen)

Sound good? Now go make your own at http://tinyurl.com!