TinyURL

I have discovered a new way to solve the problem of conveying and linking to long URLs. It's called TinyURL. If I want to link to, say, an archive of a blog, especially Web Crimson blogs, or Google searches, or any other long and cryptic URL, I can use it, and save a load of typing space, not to mention the problems that can be caused when such things wrap, or fail to wrap, as the case might be. In fact, the first time I uploaded this post, and that 190 character URL failed to wrap, it broke this page. Then Blogger went down for maintenance, and I couldn't fix it for hours. So if I seem like some kind of evangelist over this issue, remember that I have my reasons. The URLs for my Web Crimson posts run about 190 characters(!), but can be replaced by a TinyURL of 26 characters. The TinyURL for my previous post "United Nations: Debating Club or Global Government?" is http://tinyurl.com/6aqh, or this.

You will be seeing more of these as time goes by, and this service becomes more popular, in my opinion. If you want to try it out for yourself, check out the form on the bottom of the left hand side of this page and see how easy it is. Or go to their website, where you can get a more detailed explanation of how this thing works. I get nothing for this endorsement. I'm just passing along a bit of useful information, which I got from Fred Langa's newsletter, which I have found very useful over the years. Check that out as well, if you're interested.