urlshortener
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Google is shutting down its goo.gl URL shortening service
URL shorteners can be both useful and fun. Google's take on the tech launched in 2009, and added a third-party API, the ability to create QR codes and the power to link right to iOS and Android apps. Even Keanu Reeves has a URL shortener named in his honor. Unfortunately, Google is replacing its own service, goo.gl, with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) as of April 13th. These new smart URLs let you send folks to any location within iOS, Android or web apps.
UK spies tracked Middle East activists with a web link shortener
Intelligence agencies don't always rely on hacks to monitor and influence political events. Motherboard has learned that the UK's GCHQ created its own URL shortener, lurl.me, to both disseminate pro-revolution talk during Iranian and Arab Spring protests as well as track activists. Puppet accounts would use lurl.me to help get around government censorship, while GCHQ would send special links to help identify activists who were otherwise hard to follow. The combination also made it easy to understand the effectiveness of revolutionary campaigns online -- if many people clicked a link and behavior changed, GCHQ would know that its efforts made a difference.
Google's URL shortener deep links directly to iOS and Android apps
You know those goo.gl shortcuts you regularly come across on Twitter or Facebook and other places online? They now open the exact pages they link to either on the website's official app or on your browsers. For instance, if you click on a shortcut that links to a Google Maps page showing how to go from San Francisco to LA by land, it will automatically launch the navigation app if it's installed and load those step-by-step directions. If you haven't downloaded the app to your device, it will launch a browser instead. This change affects both new and old goo.gl shortcuts, so long as the website or app developer took steps to set up App Indexing for Android and iOS. Yup, that means the new feature works on both iOS and Android devices, and you can try it out for yourself right here: https://goo.gl/BpMdqp
Bit.ly announces iOS 5 SDK
Are you an iOS 5 developer? Have you paid up on your membership and accepted the NDA agreement? If so, bit.ly is opening up a new iOS 5-specific SDK. The new SDK allows iOS apps to integrate branded bit.ly shortcuts into the previously-announced new Twitter services. Branded shortcuts include TUAW's in-house aol.it links, for example. Due to iOS 5's pre-release status, you must apply directly to bit.ly (drop them a line at api@bitly.com) and clarify your NDA-status in that e-mail.
New Goo.gl URL shortener API lets third party developers in on the outrageous fun that is Google URL shortening
Just a quick note, because we know how much you love APIs: Google has opened its URL shortening service to third party developers. That's right -- not only can you use Goo.gl to generate QR codes, but now you can build it into your own software. As well as support for URL shortening and expanding, the API will also let you track your history and analytics. Says Ben D'Angelo of the URL shortening team: "You could use these features for a wide variety of applications, enabling behaviors ranging from auto-shortening within Twitter or Google Buzz clients to running regular jobs that monitor your usage statistics and traffic patterns." The team is also working to improve spam and malicious site detection for the service. Since the government of Greenland seems to be a bit more stable than that of a certain Muammar al-Gaddafi, we're sure that Google won't run into the same problems that vb.ly did (although we wonder if things would change if Kuupik Kleist got his own voluptuous Ukrainian nurse). Hit the source link to get coding.
Libya cracking down on .ly domain names, reportedly yanking them at will
Ruh roh. It looks as if current owners of .ly domain names may need to be on high alert -- you know, in case the Libyan government decides to yank your URL from the face of the internet. According to a thorough report from Ben Metcalfe, that's exactly what's happening. Vb.ly was recently pulled because the content on the site (read: not the domain) was found to be "obscene, offensive and illegal," presumably based on what would be expected under Libyan Islamic / Sharia Law. More concerning still is that Libya seems to be dictating the pulls on their own, even if the site content isn't in violation of that law. 'Course, it's all pretty vague to begin with, making it even easier to toss under said umbrella and call it a day. We're also hearing that .ly domain names with less than four letters are now being reserved for local Libyans only, and we're guessing that a continued fallout is upon us. Bit.ly, Ow.ly, Ad.ly -- you guys still with us, or what?
Goo.gl URL shortener can also spit out QR codes, if you ask it nicely
Once again, Google fails at being ordinary. Although the claim with its Goo.gl URL shortener is that it's more about quality than features, the search giant couldn't help itself and has inserted a QR code easter egg into the mix. Should you be so daring as to append a .qr at the end of your contracted hyperlink -- such as turning http://goo.gl/JCKW into http://goo.gl/JCKW.qr (both point to this post) -- you'll be treated with a QR code, built especially for you by the company's imaging smurfs. So, in case you still don't have Android 2.2 and its awesome Chrome to Phone functionality, here's an alternative method for transitioning the webpage you're reading onto your phone. Heavens forbid we'd ever have to actually type anything out ourselves.
Keanu Reeves gets a URL shortener in his honor, can stop being sad and get back to being excellent
Remember the day that this photo showed up and Keanu Reeves, famous actor and musician (and the star of one of our all-time favorites, Johnny Mnemonic) changed the internet forever by becoming a very clever meme? Well, something else good has come out of it: a URL shortener, kea.nu. Created by Shane Snow, the money earned from the temporary ads served on the shortened URLs goes to cancer research, and we can continue to keep this meme at the forefront of our minds as we move into the fall. One of our favorite products of the "Sad Keanu Reeves" phenomena is below, and for the record: we're pretty sure the guy was just enjoying his sandwich.
