What is tinyurl how does it work

No, they don't use files. They read the path part here duSk8wK , which maps to their database. In the database, they find a description sometimes , your name sometimes and the real URL. This direct redirect is important. If you were to use files or first load HTML and then redirect, the browser would add TinyUrl to the history, which is not what you want. Also, the site that is redirected to will see the referrer the site that you originally come from as being the site the TinyUrl link is on i.

This is just as important, so that site owners can see where people are coming from. This too, would not work if a page gets loaded that redirects. PS: there are more types of redirect.

HTTP means: redirect permanent. If that would happen, the browser will not request the bit. That's why HTTP is used, which is a temporary redirect. The browser will ask TinyUrl. Others have answered how the redirects work but you should also know how they generate their tiny urls. You'll mistakenly hear that they create a hash of the URL in order to generate that unique code for the shortened URL.

This is incorrect in most cases, they aren't using a hashing algorithm where you could potentially have collisions. Which routes any incoming request to your server that has any text after your domain www. It supplies the text that is passed in after the forward slash in your URL to that method. RouteURL would then convert "fif" to its base10 equivalent, , and a database request will be made to redirect to whatever URL is stored under the ID in this case, www.

You would also increase the visit count for Digg by one before redirecting to the correct URL. Some url shortening services Tinyarro. To put in perspective one can encode 1. In simple words, URL shortener maps an arbitrary long sequence of character original, long crappy url into a short and slick sequence of characters. This is nothing but Hashing, which is most commonly used to create lookup tables, HashMap, md5 Hash for cryptographic purposes etc.

Do refer to this and let me know if it was helpful. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. How do short URLs services work? Ask Question.

Asked 12 years, 1 month ago. Active 5 years ago. Viewed 71k times. Abel Nathan Campos Nathan Campos Is this what you are asking? Do the shortened urls ever get expired? They may also allow for never-expiry, some ask a membership for that. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Jawwad 1, 2 2 gold badges 9 9 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. Abel Abel Actually I think, Bit. If your TinyURL is:.

There are several services online that will decode a TinyURL for you. For example, TrueURL. Decoding a TinyURL shows you the original site address. But this information alone is no guarantee the link is safe to click on. Use the same precaution for a decoded TinyURL link as you would for any unfamiliar site that you are visiting on the internet.

David Sarokin is a well-known Internet specialist with publications in a wide variety of business topics, from the best uses of information technology to the steps for incorporating your business.

He is the author of The Corporation, Its History and Future Cambridge Scholars, on the role of big business in the modern world, and Missed Information MIT Press, , detailing how our social systems like health care, finance and government can be improved with better quality information.

By David Sarokin Updated April 24, TinyURL is a link shortener. Let's say you start with a very long link that looks like this:. Related Articles.