Comments on: urlTea: The Dilemma http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma Alex King, Denver Web Developer Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:45:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jackson Miller http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-63791 Jackson Miller Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:42:01 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-63791 I have launched urlzen.com. It is a simple URL shortener with click tracking. It is hosted on Google AppEngine and it not going anywhere. I have been adding features as people request them. If you liked urlTea then check out urlzen and let me know what you think. As for the sustainability of urlzen... it is designed to be a free feeder service to statzen.com. More will be revealed about statzen.com this Fall. I have launched urlzen.com. It is a simple URL shortener with click tracking. It is hosted on Google AppEngine and it not going anywhere.

I have been adding features as people request them. If you liked urlTea then check out urlzen and let me know what you think.

As for the sustainability of urlzen… it is designed to be a free feeder service to statzen.com. More will be revealed about statzen.com this Fall.

]]> By: hackd » urlTea down and possibly out http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-62681 hackd » urlTea down and possibly out Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:43:51 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-62681 [...] I do not believe they have something against URL services in particular. Most likely, as Alex King pointed out a while back, some of these services do not have a revenue model, and with arguably lots of [...] [...] I do not believe they have something against URL services in particular. Most likely, as Alex King pointed out a while back, some of these services do not have a revenue model, and with arguably lots of [...]

]]> By: RKNet Blog… thing » URLTea dead? http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-62664 RKNet Blog… thing » URLTea dead? Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:05:00 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-62664 [...] Their last post to Twitter was 6 months ago. Their Google code page doesn’t have any news. Alex King seemed to predict its downfall but none of the commenters have anything helpful to [...] [...] Their last post to Twitter was 6 months ago. Their Google code page doesn’t have any news. Alex King seemed to predict its downfall but none of the commenters have anything helpful to [...]

]]> By: Xeelee http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-62226 Xeelee Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:40:56 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-62226 OoOoO what's this? a nifty gifty http://code.google.com/p/urltea/ So I guess the code has been opened :) OoOoO what’s this? a nifty gifty
http://code.google.com/p/urltea/

So I guess the code has been opened :)

]]> By: k http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-60491 k Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:21:21 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-60491 aaaahh, urlTea seems to be down for the last week or so !! [k] aaaahh, urlTea seems to be down for the last week or so !!

[k]

]]> By: Alex http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55370 Alex Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:09:35 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55370 Thanks for taking the time to think about this - I'm very pleased at what you've come up with to address these issues. And thanks again for tackling the url shortening problem in the first place. Thanks for taking the time to think about this – I’m very pleased at what you’ve come up with to address these issues. And thanks again for tackling the url shortening problem in the first place.

]]> By: Brett Taylor (Glutnix) http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55341 Brett Taylor (Glutnix) Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:58:39 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55341 I want to say thanks for asking the tough questions -- I really appreciate it! You bring up excellent points; points I've pondered but not been concerned about right now. To be honest, I have been taking the 'cross that bridge when we get to it' point of view, and I thank you for calling me to be more professional about this deal. I'm no business man -- I'm a web development teacher who is doing this in my spare time, for the love of it, and the lessons I might learn while running it. Thanks for the lesson :) I've updated the about page to include policy to elate your concerns: http://urltea.com/about/#plans PS, you misspelt dilemma ;) I want to say thanks for asking the tough questions — I really appreciate it! You bring up excellent points; points I’ve pondered but not been concerned about right now.

To be honest, I have been taking the ‘cross that bridge when we get to it’ point of view, and I thank you for calling me to be more professional about this deal.

I’m no business man — I’m a web development teacher who is doing this in my spare time, for the love of it, and the lessons I might learn while running it. Thanks for the lesson :)

I’ve updated the about page to include policy to elate your concerns: http://urltea.com/about/#plans

PS, you misspelt dilemma ;)

]]> By: Alex http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55265 Alex Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:51:26 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55265 Brett - I'm sure you have the best of intentions with the service and I applaud you for getting it up so quickly, however your comment above (the way I read it) does not do much to inspire confidence. How about a pledge to give at least 90 days notice before turning it off, if you ever feel the need to do so? Maybe a pledge to give away the domain name to a qualified successor, should you be unable to continue running the service? You get the idea. Twitter has 14 million+ posts in less than a year, if the Twitter 3rd party developers start using urlTea as their shortening service it could blow up quickly. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea and I want to be a fan - but your response here has actually <em>increased</em> my reservations about using the service in my Twitter Tools plugin. Brett – I’m sure you have the best of intentions with the service and I applaud you for getting it up so quickly, however your comment above (the way I read it) does not do much to inspire confidence.

How about a pledge to give at least 90 days notice before turning it off, if you ever feel the need to do so?

Maybe a pledge to give away the domain name to a qualified successor, should you be unable to continue running the service?

You get the idea.

Twitter has 14 million+ posts in less than a year, if the Twitter 3rd party developers start using urlTea as their shortening service it could blow up quickly.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea and I want to be a fan – but your response here has actually increased my reservations about using the service in my Twitter Tools plugin.

]]> By: Brett Taylor (Glutnix) http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55259 Brett Taylor (Glutnix) Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:17:27 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55259 I'm not concerned about recouping costs because I don't think we will be incurring many costs that I don't already cover for other, more bandwidth and cpu intensive than I can envision urlTea ever being. Think about it: the majority of hits will be redirections -- not many bytes, only two SQL queries. How popular can a redirection service get? We're just a signpost, something on the way to the destination. I’m not concerned about recouping costs because I don’t think we will be incurring many costs that I don’t already cover for other, more bandwidth and cpu intensive than I can envision urlTea ever being. Think about it: the majority of hits will be redirections — not many bytes, only two SQL queries. How popular can a redirection service get? We’re just a signpost, something on the way to the destination.

]]> By: Chris Pirillo http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55241 Chris Pirillo Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:42:59 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55241 Hey Alex, Glutnix is planning on GPL'ing this week - and he's been dealing with his service provider. I'll blast him this link when I see him online again. And Mike, yeah... in GPL'ing the code, the hope is that it can find developer support and expand seven ways from Sunday. That's really one of the key differentiators with this thing. I'll be asking our own Web host about keeping things cool. :) Hey Alex, Glutnix is planning on GPL’ing this week – and he’s been dealing with his service provider. I’ll blast him this link when I see him online again.

And Mike, yeah… in GPL’ing the code, the hope is that it can find developer support and expand seven ways from Sunday. That’s really one of the key differentiators with this thing.

I’ll be asking our own Web host about keeping things cool. :)

]]> By: Alex http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55238 Alex Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:00:06 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55238 Where do you get that Chris or Lockergnome is behind urlTea? That isn't what I read on the web site: <blockquote>When Chris Pirillo twittered his frustration at TinyURLs not being 'pretty' or 'semantic' when he posted them into Twitter, ie, it wasn't obvious what was behind them, Brett Taylor stepped up and built urlTea!</blockquote> I know basically nothing about Brett Taylor. He does mention that he'll likely GPL the urlTea code, but this is one case where the code doesn't matter - the service is the potential blocker. Where do you get that Chris or Lockergnome is behind urlTea? That isn’t what I read on the web site:

When Chris Pirillo twittered his frustration at TinyURLs not being ‘pretty’ or ‘semantic’ when he posted them into Twitter, ie, it wasn’t obvious what was behind them, Brett Taylor stepped up and built urlTea!

I know basically nothing about Brett Taylor. He does mention that he’ll likely GPL the urlTea code, but this is one case where the code doesn’t matter – the service is the potential blocker.

]]> By: mike http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55237 mike Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:55:44 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55237 IF it were from some random guy, I probably would be worried. But it's from Chris Pirillo, which means it's got lockergnome behind it. I don't think it'd go anywhere anytime soon. IF it were from some random guy, I probably would be worried. But it’s from Chris Pirillo, which means it’s got lockergnome behind it. I don’t think it’d go anywhere anytime soon.

]]> By: Alex http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55236 Alex Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:46:06 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55236 Well, for one I guess I don't want the responsibility of keeping the service up and running. Well, for one I guess I don’t want the responsibility of keeping the service up and running.

]]> By: iolaire http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55234 iolaire Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:23:38 +0000 http://alexking.org/blog/2007/03/27/urltea-delimma#comment-55234 For those that need such a service how about running your own service so that you control the longevity? The rails based http://elfurl.com/ is now open source: http://www.biggu.com/2006/11/14/the-big-in-japan-source-code-revealed, and I believe that there are a few Perl scripts to do the same. For those that need such a service how about running your own service so that you control the longevity?

The rails based http://elfurl.com/ is now open source: http://www.biggu.com[...]ode-revealed, and I believe that there are a few Perl scripts to do the same.

]]>