Dear Nancy, FYI, here's an article on the limitations of free URL shorteners: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-shouldnt-rely-on-url-shorteners-2009- 8 Here's a comparison of services, but it doesn't address the longevity of the links: http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/08/18/url-shortener-speed-and-reliability-shoo tout/ The answer may be to create your own service on your own server. Google the phrase: create your own link shortener and you'll find lots of articles. Here's one: http://lifehacker.com/5335216/make-your-own-url-shortening-service
Robert __________________________ Robert L. Weiner Consulting 415/643-8955 robert at rlweiner.com www.rlweiner.com Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Proctor, Nancy Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:19 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Tiny URLs Does anyone know or have experience of the life span of compressed URLs from the various services? (tiny, bit.ly, is.gd, etc.) I know what they promise, but... I may need to use them in txt message replies that visitors can get as a sort of bookmark or aide memoire when taking our new cellphone tour. Links to related info for objects in the collection would be useful and space is short, but I don't want to txt out URLs that will expire too quickly. Nor do I know how quickly is too quickly. Some earlier research with 'bookmark' emails in Tate Modern's multimedia tour by Silvia Filippini Fantoni showed that people will keep the info they've emailed themselves for months in their in-boxes. What's the half-life of a txt message? I started a blog thread on the topic on the Museum Mobile wiki: http://wiki.museummobile.info/archives/645 Thanks for any insights you have! Nancy _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
