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Justin Hartman

Posted on October 2, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

TinyLink - My latest clone

Projects TinyLink

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TinyLink

I’ve been a big fan of TinyURL! for some time now and I’ve been quite fascinated with how the whole thing is put together so after having a chat with Colin and Gregor on Friday about the whole architecture of TinyURL I decided to have a go and see what I could come up with. I’m pleased to say that it didn’t take altogether that long and by Sunday evening TinyLink went live.

The biggest challenge for me was structuring the database so that a shortened URL would never exceeding six characters and this took some figuring out but I’ve now got a structure that can handle, literally, a couple billion short URLs.

I also created some help files for IE7, Firefox and Safari which shows you how to add a TinyLink button to your browser so that you can easily convert a long URL into a short one with one simple click.

There is absolutely no commercial value in this, the logo is crap and I only did it to see if I could replicate this great service so please go easy on me…

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26 Comments

We'd love to hear yours!



  1. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    GadgetGadget.info - Gadgets on the web » TinyLink - My latest clone said:

    [...] steddyeddy wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptTinyLink. I’ve been a big fan of TinyURL! for some time now and I’ve been quite fascinated with how the whole thing is put together so after having a chat with Colin and Gregor on Friday about the whole architecture of TinyURL I decided … [...]



  2. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Grant said:

    The fact that you can ‘throw’ something like this together in a weekend is sickening!
    Enough ego stroking though…
    No commercial value??? Legal issues?



  3. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Grant said:

    The fact that you can 'throw' something like this together in a weekend is sickening!
    Enough ego stroking though…
    No commercial value??? Legal issues?



  4. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Justin Hartman said:

    LOL it wasn’t meant to be a “look how good I am” post…. :)

    What I would like to know Grant is what do you mean by Legal issues?



  5. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Justin Hartman said:

    LOL it wasn't meant to be a “look how good I am” post…. :)

    What I would like to know Grant is what do you mean by Legal issues?



  6. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Grant said:

    Yeah, why is there no commercial value? is this due to legal issues. ie. copyrights.



  7. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Grant said:

    Yeah, why is there no commercial value? is this due to legal issues. ie. copyrights.



  8. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Justin Hartman said:

    Maybe I phrased that sentance wrong… What I meant to say really is that there is no revenue model in sight because I can’t see a commercial aspect to the service.

    With so many successful url shortening services out there I did it not for revenue but more as a challenge.



  9. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Justin Hartman said:

    Maybe I phrased that sentance wrong… What I meant to say really is that there is no revenue model in sight because I can't see a commercial aspect to the service.

    With so many successful url shortening services out there I did it not for revenue but more as a challenge.



  10. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Star Sightings » Blog Archive » TinyLink - My latest clone said:

    [...] A cool person wrote an interesting post todayHere’s a quick excerpt:I’m pleased to say that it didn’t take altogether that long and by Sunday evening TinyLink went live. The biggest challenge for me was structuring the database so that a shortened URL would never exceeding six characters and this took … [...]



  11. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Grant said:

    Hmmm, with my day-job hat on I can see some revenue potential. You can expect non-blogging Grant (the person I transform into when at the day job) to email you later.



  12. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Grant said:

    Hmmm, with my day-job hat on I can see some revenue potential. You can expect non-blogging Grant (the person I transform into when at the day job) to email you later.



  13. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Charl said:

    I was just about to say crappy logo, but you beat me to it! haha

    Nice little project, Im sure you got satisfaction from slapping it together over a weekend..

    Nicely done



  14. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Charl said:

    I was just about to say crappy logo, but you beat me to it! haha

    Nice little project, Im sure you got satisfaction from slapping it together over a weekend..

    Nicely done



  15. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

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    Wezz said:

    I think it’s a fairly decent logo actually, good job J. I was thinking about creating a ‘tinylink’ just the other day - would never have worked out quite as well as this did though.



  16. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Wezz said:

    I think it's a fairly decent logo actually, good job J. I was thinking about creating a 'tinylink' just the other day - would never have worked out quite as well as this did though.



  17. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

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    Henre said:

    I actually like the logo. Different strokes for different folks innit?

    When I look at my laptop with programming eyes the apps uninstall themselves.

    Well done!



  18. Visit My Website

    October 2, 2007

    Permalink

    Henre said:

    I actually like the logo. Different strokes for different folks innit?

    When I look at my laptop with programming eyes the apps uninstall themselves.

    Well done!



  19. Visit My Website

    October 3, 2007

    Permalink

    hash said:

    Nice, I’ll start using it instead of TinyURL then.



  20. Visit My Website

    October 3, 2007

    Permalink

    hash said:

    Nice, I'll start using it instead of TinyURL then.



  21. Visit My Website

    October 3, 2007

    Permalink

    Eve said:

    Justin,

    You are a genius.



  22. Visit My Website

    October 3, 2007

    Permalink

    Eve said:

    Justin,

    You are a genius.



  23. Visit My Website

    October 3, 2007

    Permalink

    Dave said:

    Respeeeect!



  24. Visit My Website

    October 3, 2007

    Permalink

    Dave said:

    Respeeeect!



  25. Visit My Website

    October 8, 2007

    Permalink

    Dominique said:

    nice one mate



  26. Visit My Website

    October 8, 2007

    Permalink

    Dominique said:

    nice one mate



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