A "tinyurl" service for your domain

Creating a new shortlink is "self-service". You go to "http://go", fill out the form, and you are done. You don't have to open a ticket. You don't have to wait for your system administrator to create a link. A person with little or no web skills can create a "go" link, mention it in an email or on a sign in the hallway and everyone knows what to do. As a result it has transformed the corporate online culture.

Control-freaks may be appalled that we don't have an official librarian that dictates and enforces a naming standard. But just like Flickr "tags" it just works. People self-organize. "Best practices" organically evolve. When there is a name conflict it tends to get resolved by people talking directly to the owner and negotiating. I'm very happy about that.

What really impresses me is that where I work the "go" service was never officially announced. The people that invented it started using it and people noticed. The idea spread virally. Within a month everyone was using it. People thought to just type "go" (alone) in their web browser and were happy to find a web site that explained what to do.

Wish you had this at your company? If you are a Google Apps customer there is a "labs" app that gives you this kind of thing for your users. You can call it "go" or "t" or "shortlink" or whatever you wish. You, as the system administrator, has to enable it (Dashboard, Add more services, Short Links). Update DNS as the system directs you. Configure your DNS search path needs to be properly configured, which it should be already. However, people can specify the FQDN for links if they are traveling. For example http://go/tom-picture works if your DNS search path is correct, and http://go.whatexit.org/tom-picture can be used if it is not.

What about security? Links may be "public" or "private". Private links don't work unless the user has logged into their Apps domain. "Public" links always work. I set up a private link on my personal domain you can see: http://go.whatexit.org/internal-secrets

There are a few more features. A user can edit their own links. The system can suggest a short link name (hash) if you are feeling uncreative. You can transfer ownership of a link to another user of your domain. There is a search capability. It keeps counts on how often a link is used and therefore can tell you which are the most "popular" links.

The administrative control panel has a large number of optional features: Enable the service for multiple domains. If a link is used more than x times, only an administrator can delete it. Restrict the feature to certain IP subnets. Enable API access (yes, it has an API). Restrict who can create new links. Restrict public shortlinks to a specific list (probably a good idea). And many more.

Some features that I wish it had: The search feature searches the shortlink name, not the destination URL. Therefore I can't search to find out if someone has created a shortlink already. It doesn't give a warning if I'm about to create a public link to a private (internal to my domain) URL.

There are two caveats: First, it is a "lab" product (did you know that Google Apps now has "labs" features just like Gmail?). It is implemented in Google App Engine (did you know that Google Apps can now have privately hosted apps?). Secondly, in the name of transparency I should point out that I'm a Google employee and therefore could be biased. However, I've been using this for eons and have been waiting for the day that I'd be able to talk about it publicly. It is so simple and "just works". If you don't use Google Apps, you might consider writing a simple redirector service for your users. (Or enable Google Apps and only use this feature!)

For more information or to add it to your Google Apps domain, here is the home page.

As with all hosted apps, check the privacy policy and terms of service before use.

If you use this feature please let me know (post a comment) and share your experiences with it!