I found an interesting article on PHPMaster, the topic grabbed my attention as I would like to know the mechanics in building a URL shortener. I already had used WordPress’ URL shortener to post links to articles Group 5 PHP have posted on a Twitter Page – www.twitter.com/Group5PHP. Surprisingly it looks easy to create a URL shortener; the article had code examples, step-by-step guide explaining pretty much everything there needed to know about the code snippets.
Why use URL shorteners?
- It’s an easy way to redirect users to a certain webpage you want to share.
- Social Media websites such as Twitter a micro-blogging website has a 140 character limit.
- Convenient when you want to share a URL that is very long.
URL-shorteners came about in 2000, the first notable URL-shortener, TinyURL was launched in 2002. Initially Twitter automatically translated long URLs using TinyURL, although it began using bit.ly in 2009.
- Article on PHP Master about ‘Building Your Own URL Shortener’ by Alex Fraundorf.
- GitHub code repository for Building Your Own URL Shortener by Alex Fraundorf.
Have a try at making a URL shortener of your own, I know I will give this a go.
- Robert Phan
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
