How Does Url Shortening Work?

Almost everyone uses the internet nowadays for whatever reason it may be, whether to chat, do research, online shopping, almost anything. Sometimes there is a need to remember the URL, but it gets too long and impossible to remember. This is why a technique on the World Wide Web has been established where the provider creates a web page available under a very short URL in addition to the original address. This technique is called URL shortening.

Most people are not yet aware of this technique, and for those who have heard of it probably do not know how it works or why even bother with it. There are many free URL shortening services that you can find online. These services convert long URLs into short names and perform redirection for the user once the short URL is clicked. This helps avoid URL garbling since it is aesthetically unpleasant and very difficult to remember.

Copying the URL that reaches hundreds of characters can make it garbled, while short URLs are easier and very useful to copy on a forum post or an e-mail message. Long URLs are often broken up by the time it reaches its destination, and instead of reading as a single string of characters, it is turned into multiple lines and can no longer serve as a clickable link.

There are different techniques on how to implement URL shortening. Keys can be generated numerically in what they call “base 36”, assuming 26 letters and 10 numbers from 0 to 9. If a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters are accepted, then the number should be in “base 62”, where there are 26 lowercase letters + 26 uppercase letters, and 10 numbers. A “hash function” or a “random number” can also be generated so that the key sequence is unpredictable. The third option for shortening is that the users can actually propose their own keys.

Although URL shortening offers convenience, it can also produce potential problems. Shorter URLs are more susceptible to “linkrots”, or when a website gradually becomes irrelevant or broken as time goes on, because the websites that they link to either move to new locations, disappear, or change their content. A known solution is to periodically download the redirect database for back-up, if it is permitted by the service. Privacy issues of the users may also be exposed in that the link shortening service is in a position to track a user’s behaviour across many domains.

Also, a much shorter URL obscures the target address which results in being redirected to an unexpected site. This could be an example of what is called “rickrolling”, or being redirected to other scam and affiliate websites. This problem, however, has been countered by offering the option to preview the link just by simply prefixing the word “preview” in front of the URL address. This option has been highly suggested by security professionals before accessing the link, especially after the URL shortening service CLI.GS was hacked which exposed millions of users.

By: Siddhesh15 Siddhesh15

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Siddhesh is author of this article on Short Url. Find more information about Twittter url shortener here.