2009-04-13
URL Shortening - Problems and solutions
Background read to understand the problem: http://joshua.schachter.org/2009/04/on-url-shorteners.html
Some of the main problems for web users:
On the site owner side there is a big question as to how search engines deal with the issue. Most search engines use some popularity algorithm to calculate which site is more popular in any given search scenario. The problem is that your site might be very popular, but since the URL points to a URL shortening service some search engines (maybe all of them) might not make the connection and your site popularity on the given search engines take a nose dive.
Is there a solution?
It looks like it... Still early days, but have a look at these two articles:
Other resources:
Some of the main problems for web users:
- The real URL are hidden, so the user never knows exactly where they are going. For example: http://service.tld/?abc could point to an undesirable site or just as well to a reputable news site - you never know up front.
- A lot of spam houses make use of URL shortening service to circumvent anti-spam systems and the end user sits again with the same problem as mentioned in the previous point.
On the site owner side there is a big question as to how search engines deal with the issue. Most search engines use some popularity algorithm to calculate which site is more popular in any given search scenario. The problem is that your site might be very popular, but since the URL points to a URL shortening service some search engines (maybe all of them) might not make the connection and your site popularity on the given search engines take a nose dive.
Is there a solution?
It looks like it... Still early days, but have a look at these two articles:
- http://shiflett.org/blog/2009/apr/save-the-internet-with-rev-canonical
- http://laughingmeme.org/2009/04/03/url-shortening-hinting/
Other resources:
