I've read all this with interest and it brings up some interesting points. The original subjects is with regard to emails, where there is a limit of 78 characters for some (older) systems.
The other use for short URLs is where they have to be physically typed in because they are on a hard copy. It would make sense to me for the BBC to have a system of short code URLs for the whole site. I suspect that I would personally make them: go.bbc.co.uk/shortcode If they are to be reproduced in newspapers and the like, then they codes really need to be case insensitive and treat zero/O and one/I as the same character. This would allow a total of 34 characters (alphanumerics plus numbers minus two) for each character in the short code. This would give 34^5=45,435,424 possibilities for a five character code or 34^6=1,544,804,416 possibilities for six. I imagine that a six-character code would last for a few years.... I would also, personally, generate the codes randomly. These codes could then be displayed somewhere near the top of each page. Another use, which I don't think anyone has mentioned, for short codes is on mobile phones and other devices with poor input devices. On 06/11/2007, Matthew Somerville <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > David Greaves wrote: > > then some silly bugger like me will think about it in an entirely > different way: > > (see above URL) > > Okay, but more and more people can only learn about hierarchical-ness - > e.g. > the mouse gesture in Opera to "go up" a level and so on (just thought, I > wonder if that works on Opera on a Wii...? :) ). > > But as you say, people don't generally type URLs, and having the hierarchy > as a /result/ of tinyurl or whatever is still helpful. I'd be most annoyed > if a tinyurl displayed the page under that URL I've just entered without > changing to the actual location. > > > I notice the URLs in http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ are not so easy to > > comprehend (not a criticism - just an example of a more complex problem > that > > doesn't succumb). > > Only because we haven't been able to get around to it yet, it could be a > lot > better, certainly at a 1st/2nd depth level - I believe there's a ticket > for > it ;) > > > For the rare occasion we need to type (transcribe) then I'd suggest that > > tinyURLs are a better UI than informative URLs. They have less chance of > > transcription error (both because they're shorter and because the user > doesn't > > think they know how to spell). > > Yep. However, as you said, how many URLs do you type? Certainly, links are > clickable in my email client, so there was no real need for tiny-urls in > that email from the BBC that started this discussion. The two arguments > here > are that some clients (Hotmail in "safe" mode, AOL if you haven't sent the > email properly) don't make links clickable, so the user has to > copy/paste/type them - tiny-urls doesn't help here, so we can assume the > links will be clickable; and that URLs that are too long break across > lines, > so we need to make them shorter - and I think you could probably make an > informative *and* shorter URL, perhaps adjusting between the two depending > on your personal preference. If the URLs were stupidly long, I believe > that's more likely to be a problem with that URL structure first. > > Tiny-urls for transcribing - this presumably means over a phone or > similar, > in which case I'd say - I'll just send you an email :-) A downside of > transcribing tiny-urls is if you do get them wrong, there's probably not > much the tiny-url provider can do to help; having a bit of information > (and > a good web developer) means a 404 page can hopefully be of use. But sadly > lots of people aren't good web developers (I'm sure there are lots of > places > where I too fail on that before anyone goes hunting for any!) > > But I do like the fact that http://www.dracos.co.uk/paly/live-trains-ma/ > works fine :) > > ATB, > Matthew | http://www.dracos.co.uk/ > > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial > list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth www.ukfree.tv
