Andy Hall wrote:
On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:12:59 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

I keep seeing urls beginning 'tinyurl'.

How does one do that?

Go to www.tinyurl.com

You can download a link for your browser from there. Then in future,
you navigate to where you want to go then press the link button. You
will end up on a Tinyurl page with the compressed URL shown.
However, the URL is also conveniently copied to your clipboard, so you
can just paste directly into the news article.

It generally works OK, but will fail on URLs related to user sessions
that time out.


When quoting tinyurl links, I always include both it and the 'raw' link,
because if the tinyurl link does fail for whatever reason, the recipient
still has a sporting chance of tracking it down if they are minded to,
by eyeballing the long 'raw' link. many folk don't like clicking on
tinurl links for fear of something nasty at the other end - providing
the recipient knows/trusts me, the full version offers some reassurance
that the link is kosher.

Actually, I've found the tinyurl service really useful for compressing
long links not just in emails and usenet posts but for many other uses
too - eg dictating a link over the phone; copying one down by hand to
pass on to someone; and including in a newspaper small ad (to enable
inclusion of a substantial 'web' version of the ad, or a photo).

David