Walt writes “Miss those wonderful multiline ALA URLs?
Agree with Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing weblog, where I got this) that “tinyurl” and its equivalents reduce the worth of a URL by stripping out the semantics and interposing a third party?
Fight back! Take your ordinary URL to:
hugeurl.com and turn that pipsqueak 20-character weakling into a page-filling sand-kicking monster!
So, for example, instead of the awkwardly short
cites.boistestate.edu/civ4i3.pdf to get the current issue of Cites & Insights, you can use:
http://hugeurl.com/?OTZlNWE5YzE0OTRiZDIxMWZiYjZlM
d2QyUXlWa2hWV0doVVYwZG9jRlZ0TVZOWFZsbDNXa1JTVjFac
bGhoTVhCUVZteFZlRll5VGtsalJtaG9UV3N3ZUZadGNFdFRNV
SFRURmFjVkZ0UmxSTmF6RTFWVEowVjFaWFNrbFJiR2hYWWxob
MkpIZHpGV2EyUXdZVEZrU0ZOclpHcFRSVXBZVkZWa1UyUnNjR
V01ERkZVbFJDVjAxdVVuWlZha1pYWkVaT2NtSkdTbWxXUjNoW
bGhTV1ZWcVJrdFRWbFowWlVoa1YwMUVSa1pXYkdoclZqSkZlV
dFJrZFhiV3hUWVROQ2RsWnRNWGRVTWtsNVVtdGtWMkpyTlZsW
Vko1VmpKNFQyRkdXbk5qU0hCYVRVWmFlbFpxUVhoa1ZsWjFWM
T2MyTkZaR2hTTW5oVVdWUk9RMlJzV25STldHUlZUVlpXTlZWd
RlJaTVZwelkyeHdSVkZyT1dsU00yaFlWbXBLZWs1V1dsaFRhM
eFUydDBWRkpzU2xwWlZWcHJWakZLV1ZGck1WZFdNMEpJVmtSR
bGRYZUc5aU1XUkhWMjVTVGxOSGFGQlZiVEUwVmpGU1ZtRkhPV
T1ZsSmFUVlp3ZWxreWVHdGtWbkJHVGxaT2FXRXdjRWxXYlhCS
VEJrTkZsV1VsWlhibVJzWWtac00xWXlNVWRWTWtwR1RsUkNXb
V2FHaE5WbkJ2Vmxod1MxVXhXWGhWYmxaVllsZG9WRlJYTVc5V
V2h2VjBkS1JrNVdVbFZXYlZFd1ZtcEdVMVp0UmtoUFZtUk9Wa
b2FGSnNTbGhVVlZwM1lVWndSbHBGT1U5aVJYQjVWR3hhYTJGV
a3BsVmtweVdrWlNXRkl5YUZwWFZ6QXhVVEZrUjFWc2FFOVdhe
b1lYcEdWMVJzYUhkV2JGbzJVbXRvVjFaRldreFdha3BQVWpGY
MU14VlhoWFdHaFdZbXhhVmxsclduZGpSbHB4VkcwNWEySkdjR
TlYyaDJWMVphUzFJeFRuUlBWbFpYWWtoQ1RWZHNXbUZWTWsxN
VlphYzFwRVVsWk5WbXcxVld4b2MxWnNXa1pUYkdoWFlXczFkb
clNrbFdWbVEwV1ZaWmVGTnJXbE5XUlZVNQ==
Now, isn’t that better?
(Yes, the HugeURL does work, once you combine all the lines and strip out any spaces. You didn’t think I was going to include the whole thing as HTML, did you?)”
Walt writes “Miss those wonderful multiline ALA URLs?
Agree with Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing weblog, where I got this) that “tinyurl” and its equivalents reduce the worth of a URL by stripping out the semantics and interposing a third party?
Fight back! Take your ordinary URL to:
hugeurl.com and turn that pipsqueak 20-character weakling into a page-filling sand-kicking monster!
So, for example, instead of the awkwardly short
cites.boistestate.edu/civ4i3.pdf to get the current issue of Cites & Insights, you can use:
http://hugeurl.com/?OTZlNWE5YzE0OTRiZDIxMWZiYjZlM
d2QyUXlWa2hWV0doVVYwZG9jRlZ0TVZOWFZsbDNXa1JTVjFac
bGhoTVhCUVZteFZlRll5VGtsalJtaG9UV3N3ZUZadGNFdFRNV
SFRURmFjVkZ0UmxSTmF6RTFWVEowVjFaWFNrbFJiR2hYWWxob
MkpIZHpGV2EyUXdZVEZrU0ZOclpHcFRSVXBZVkZWa1UyUnNjR
V01ERkZVbFJDVjAxdVVuWlZha1pYWkVaT2NtSkdTbWxXUjNoW
bGhTV1ZWcVJrdFRWbFowWlVoa1YwMUVSa1pXYkdoclZqSkZlV
dFJrZFhiV3hUWVROQ2RsWnRNWGRVTWtsNVVtdGtWMkpyTlZsW
Vko1VmpKNFQyRkdXbk5qU0hCYVRVWmFlbFpxUVhoa1ZsWjFWM
T2MyTkZaR2hTTW5oVVdWUk9RMlJzV25STldHUlZUVlpXTlZWd
RlJaTVZwelkyeHdSVkZyT1dsU00yaFlWbXBLZWs1V1dsaFRhM
eFUydDBWRkpzU2xwWlZWcHJWakZLV1ZGck1WZFdNMEpJVmtSR
bGRYZUc5aU1XUkhWMjVTVGxOSGFGQlZiVEUwVmpGU1ZtRkhPV
T1ZsSmFUVlp3ZWxreWVHdGtWbkJHVGxaT2FXRXdjRWxXYlhCS
VEJrTkZsV1VsWlhibVJzWWtac00xWXlNVWRWTWtwR1RsUkNXb
V2FHaE5WbkJ2Vmxod1MxVXhXWGhWYmxaVllsZG9WRlJYTVc5V
V2h2VjBkS1JrNVdVbFZXYlZFd1ZtcEdVMVp0UmtoUFZtUk9Wa
b2FGSnNTbGhVVlZwM1lVWndSbHBGT1U5aVJYQjVWR3hhYTJGV
a3BsVmtweVdrWlNXRkl5YUZwWFZ6QXhVVEZrUjFWc2FFOVdhe
b1lYcEdWMVJzYUhkV2JGbzJVbXRvVjFaRldreFdha3BQVWpGY
MU14VlhoWFdHaFdZbXhhVmxsclduZGpSbHB4VkcwNWEySkdjR
TlYyaDJWMVphUzFJeFRuUlBWbFpYWWtoQ1RWZHNXbUZWTWsxN
VlphYzFwRVVsWk5WbXcxVld4b2MxWnNXa1pUYkdoWFlXczFkb
clNrbFdWbVEwV1ZaWmVGTnJXbE5XUlZVNQ==
Now, isn’t that better?
(Yes, the HugeURL does work, once you combine all the lines and strip out any spaces. You didn’t think I was going to include the whole thing as HTML, did you?)”
Draft. Reference desk performance guidelines.e havioralGuidelines2.docv ersion&categ=doc&id=1075416634.1Guidelines2.do cU SA
Draft
Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and
Information Service Providers
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/_rusa/FinalDraftB
http://documents.cern.ch/cgi-bin/setlink?base=con
http://www.ala.org/RUSAMAINTemplate.cfm?Section=R
Convert to plain text
http://samurajdata.se/~cj/ps.html
http://preprints.cern.ch/Convert?emailGuide
Nice
I agree that URLs do have meaning when they express the location of content. In nicely developed sites you actually do see a hierarchy as to the organization of information. As a person who is in Advanced Cataloging class this semester, such is something I can appreciate.
Then again, long and arbitrary URLs do make me wonder what is going on organizationally with a site and its maintainers.
Re:Nice
You’re absolutely right (and I like the analogy to cataloging!). In this case, both Cory Doctorow and critics of ALA’s (former?) URL scheme have valid points:
Within reason, structured URLs add context.
Without care, structured URLs can go berserk.
“Tinyurls” solve the second problem by entirely eliminating the first virtue–you no longer even know the primary domain. “Hugeurl” is, I assume, a tongue-in-cheek response. One I couldn’t resist.
Me either
I could not resist hugeURL either. Items like this (and the one about the CtrlAltDelete guy) help restore some of my faith in the cosmos.
Thanks, Walt!