Untiny, A Tool To Expand Shortened URLs
A bunch of URL shortening services have been popping up everywhere recently, made popular by the advent of micro-blogging, each offering users the base functionality to take long urls and shorten them, with some adding some small yet interesting functionalities on the side.
Untiny is a new service that does the exact opposite, giving you the possibility to take a shortened URL and expand it to retrieve the original web address behind it.
There are a number of reasons why this comes in handy, as it solves the problem of obfuscation created by shortened URLs where the person provided the link doesn’t have any way to tell where it really points, and in some countries it solves the problem of any of those URL shortening services being blocked.
The user interface is as simple as you can imagine such a service should be, you’re presented with a simple textbox where you can paste the shortened URL, click on the retrieve button, and get the original URL.
A quicker shortcut is also provided by directly passing the shortened URL to their service in the address bar using the following syntax: http://untiny.com?url=SHORTENED URL
Untiny also provides the possibility to add the tool in the search engine textbox in Firefox to enable users to directly paste the shortened URL in and get on their way.
An API has also been created for the service to enable developers and other services to tap into the Untiny service to expand shortened URLs.
Among the developments currently underway for Untiny are a Firefox add-on, Greasemonkey script, Mac widget and Windows widget.
Untiny was launched in public beta on September 12th from Saudi Arabia by Saleh Al-Zaid.
# Untiny
3 Responses to “Untiny, A Tool To Expand Shortened URLs”
Omar Bohsali on Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
This seems like a good idea, but the integration is an issue. I’m not gonna take something so simple, like a tiny url and then go all the way to another website to just see where it points. Don’t most tiny URL services already fo this?
Either way, nice job.
Saleh Al-Zaid on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
@Omar
The main purpose of untiny is to overcome blocking tiny urls like the case in Saudi Arabia. I’m currently developing a Firefox extension to untine tiny urls during loading the page for better integration.
Thanks for your comment.
and thanks for StartUpArabia for this chance
Sabeur on Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
I like the idea and good luck