Posted on October 2, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
TinyLink – My latest clone
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…
I am the MD and co-founder of 
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October 2, 2007
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[...] 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 … [...]
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October 2, 2007
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The fact that you can ‘throw’ something like this together in a weekend is sickening!
Enough ego stroking though…
No commercial value??? Legal issues?
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October 2, 2007
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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?
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October 2, 2007
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Yeah, why is there no commercial value? is this due to legal issues. ie. copyrights.
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October 2, 2007
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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.
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October 2, 2007
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[...] 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 … [...]
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October 2, 2007
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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.
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October 2, 2007
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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
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October 2, 2007
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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.
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October 2, 2007
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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!
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October 2, 2007
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The fact that you can 'throw' something like this together in a weekend is sickening!
Enough ego stroking though…
No commercial value??? Legal issues?
Visit My Website
October 2, 2007
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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?
Visit My Website
October 2, 2007
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Yeah, why is there no commercial value? is this due to legal issues. ie. copyrights.
Visit My Website
October 2, 2007
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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.
Visit My Website
October 2, 2007
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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.
Visit My Website
October 2, 2007
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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
Visit My Website
October 2, 2007
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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.
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October 2, 2007
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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!
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October 3, 2007
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Nice, I’ll start using it instead of TinyURL then.
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October 3, 2007
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Justin,
You are a genius.
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October 3, 2007
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Nice, I'll start using it instead of TinyURL then.
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October 3, 2007
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Justin,
You are a genius.
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October 3, 2007
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Respeeeect!
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October 3, 2007
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Respeeeect!
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October 8, 2007
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nice one mate
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October 8, 2007
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nice one mate