Anatomy of a URL
(Updated: October 4, 2011)
I received an eMail regarding a Dell promotion called the "Military Appreciation Event." Both my wife and I fervently support our military men and women. Years ago in our hearts, we adopted one of our oldest son's best friends, currently stationed in Afghanistan. In addition, I was a military brat myself, as well as having been a consultant and service provider to the DoD over the years. The email naturally caught my attention.
Knowing many people serving in the military and friends who have relatives deployed, I decided to compose a quick post to share this information. As I was reviewing the eMail, I noticed the lengthy size of the URL and wondered how many people would attempt to cut/paste and forward it via eMail. Too often, an eMail contains a Web site link that requires multiple lines and often breaks into two or more distinct strings. This in turn causes the link to fail and makes copying it into the browser's Navigation Toolbar difficult.
Because of such hassles, sites such as TinyURL.com have sprouted up and become popular. Visit TinyURL.com, paste in a long link and, voila, it generates a much smaller, though non-sensical, link that will take users to the same Web site. Simple enough.
It is also possible to access long links by only including the minimum required information. In many cases, the actual information necessary to access the link is much smaller than that provided due to the site's tracking information about you or how you came to visit the site. For example, check out the Dell link:
Dell's Military Appreciation Event link (as provided in the eMail):
Dell's Military Appreciation Event link (as required to visit site):
The former could cause problems when trying to cut and paste into some eMail clients due to line wrapping; while the latter is more concise. Moreover, it allows you to visit the site without disclosing anything more about yourself than what the browser normally provides.
A quick comparison of the two links reveals the differences:
The first consists of the service type [
The second contains only the service type, subdomain, domain and the page information up to the question mark (
In most cases, you can drop everything from the question mark (
As an example:
and
will link to the same page. But in the second link, Circuit City cannot associate the link with a specific marketing campaign [
You can usually identify the sites that use Web pages to manage content redirection. In this example, the page,
Note: Option identifiers can be all lower, all upper or mixed case. I only used upper case as to make the examples more prominent.
Magazine or new Web sites will often use
After reading my picked over Tech Bone, I hope you will visit Dell's Military Appreciation Event site and nominate your favorite military service person.
Dell's Military Appreciation Event Link
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I received an eMail regarding a Dell promotion called the "Military Appreciation Event." Both my wife and I fervently support our military men and women. Years ago in our hearts, we adopted one of our oldest son's best friends, currently stationed in Afghanistan. In addition, I was a military brat myself, as well as having been a consultant and service provider to the DoD over the years. The email naturally caught my attention.
Knowing many people serving in the military and friends who have relatives deployed, I decided to compose a quick post to share this information. As I was reviewing the eMail, I noticed the lengthy size of the URL and wondered how many people would attempt to cut/paste and forward it via eMail. Too often, an eMail contains a Web site link that requires multiple lines and often breaks into two or more distinct strings. This in turn causes the link to fail and makes copying it into the browser's Navigation Toolbar difficult.
Because of such hassles, sites such as TinyURL.com have sprouted up and become popular. Visit TinyURL.com, paste in a long link and, voila, it generates a much smaller, though non-sensical, link that will take users to the same Web site. Simple enough.
It is also possible to access long links by only including the minimum required information. In many cases, the actual information necessary to access the link is much smaller than that provided due to the site's tracking information about you or how you came to visit the site. For example, check out the Dell link:
Dell's Military Appreciation Event link (as provided in the eMail):
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/military-appreciation-homepage?c=us&cs=6099&link_number=120496226&dgc=EM&cid=74050&lid=1900488&acd=3RDAO4-N7I7N-FAAW4N-4ANSP8-JDBX2-v1Dell's Military Appreciation Event link (as required to visit site):
http://http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/military-appreciation-homepage?cs=6099&link_number=120496226The former could cause problems when trying to cut and paste into some eMail clients due to line wrapping; while the latter is more concise. Moreover, it allows you to visit the site without disclosing anything more about yourself than what the browser normally provides.
A quick comparison of the two links reveals the differences:
The first consists of the service type [
http://], a subdomain [www.], the domain [dell.com], the location of the Web page within the Web Server directory structure [/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/military-appreciation-homepage] and options [?c=us&cs=6099&link_number=120496226&dgc=EM&cid=74050&lid=1900488&acd=3RDAO4-N7I7N-FAAW4N-4ANSP8-JDBX2-v1].The second contains only the service type, subdomain, domain and the page information up to the question mark (
?). That is the minimum information required. A question mark (?) in a link indicates one or more options follow and ampersands (&) separate the options. In this instance, ?c= corresponds to the first option (us is the option value). The remaining options are &cs=, &link_number=, &dgc=, &cid=, &lid= and &acd=.In most cases, you can drop everything from the question mark (
?) on and still navigate to the same link. However, some sites use a Web page to manage Web content redirection, in which case you may have to include one or more options.As an example:
http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=154271&SRCCODE=CCEM772CN&cm_mmc=EML-_-Main-_-CCEM772-_-circuit772and
http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=154271will link to the same page. But in the second link, Circuit City cannot associate the link with a specific marketing campaign [
SRCCODE=CCEM772CN&cm_mmc=EML-_-Main-_-CCEM772-_-circuit772].You can usually identify the sites that use Web pages to manage content redirection. In this example, the page,
item-details.asp, is obviously generic and not in any way descriptive of the link being to a Toshiba TV. In such cases, look for an ID= or NO= or DESC= or SKU= or similar option that would be unique to the Toshiba and include that option but exclude the others (in this example, EdpNo=154271).Note: Option identifiers can be all lower, all upper or mixed case. I only used upper case as to make the examples more prominent.
Magazine or new Web sites will often use
ART= or ARTICLE= or PAGE= or PG= or STORY= or similar. The Web developer decides what option name to use. Ultimately, and with some quick testing, you can usually shorten LONG URLs significantly and make them much easier to pass along.After reading my picked over Tech Bone, I hope you will visit Dell's Military Appreciation Event site and nominate your favorite military service person.
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I think the suggested url is a broken link. I tried twice.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Turns out I was a bit hasty on chopping the link. It did require a couple of options (?cs=6099&link_number=120496226). In further testing, I discovered that, once loaded the first time, information was being stored in cookies that only cleared when the browser session terminated so I needed to reload the browser (or clear the cookies) to properly test the shortened links. I have since updated the article and corrected the link.
ReplyDeleteThe link did not end up being the best example but it was still shortened by 74 characters (a wrap line in most eMail clients). In its corrected format, it might be a candidate for TinyURL.