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Comment by start123 | Hacker News Reader

Since I am running a URL shortener service https://blanq.io, my two cents:

1. I looked at https://github.com/nelsontky/gh-pages-url-shortener/blob/mai... and it is a basic script that does nothing more than redirection. A lot of URL shorteners on the web do a lot more. Premium ones can track users and route links based on client.

2. Most of URL shortening audience is non-technical and they usually like to pay and forget about it. Hosting and running your own service is an overhead.

3. Handling traffic at scale is challenging. So, if you have a lot of hits, I would not advise spending time maintaining the service.

4. Github can kill this anytime.

That said, this is neat solution for basic needs.

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How come I couldn’t find your service when I was looking for alternatives for bitly? The only results I got via Google, product hunt ... services that were overpriced and very limiting (nr of teammates)

I launched this a few months ago so getting to the first page of google search results is a bit challenging.

Maybe allow users to shorten links for free (without account) so that your domain becomes recognizable. bitly became popular that way

And target enterprises with custom URL's. They look very good

Maybe copy some features adjust has (deep linking and redirecting to respective app stores with tracking parameters)

https://www.adjust.com/glossary/deep-linking/

Without account, shortening invited spammers and lead to security concerns and it was difficult to deal with that.

Businesses that I target have set up custom domains and reap more benefit from it.

I eventually plan to retire default shortening domain(blanq.io) and only offer custom domains.

Also on PH by the way https://www.producthunt.com/posts/blanq/. Will bump you up as paid account for free if you are interested :)

1. What's wrong with a "basic" script?

2. who "likes to pay"? Having a free option is great, no matter whether you're "non-technical" or not...

3. It's hosted on GH Pages. I think they're pretty okay on the scaling front, what do you think?

4. Technically yes, as in "they could switch off GH Pages and the API". Not sure how likely that is. Also, the redirections are saved as GH issues

1. Nothing wrong. But there are plenty of things to consider if you need a mature product.

2. Businesses like to pay.

3. Github has been bad lately https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/13/github_takes_some_dow...

I don't think this is meant to be used by anyone, except as a fun proof-of-concept project, or maybe for a personal collection of URLs.

I think the example on your home page would look better as https://mysto.re/buy-shoes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.re

Wow! Thanks. That's way better.

Yeah. It is a popular feature in link shortners. Looks a lot better and has a premium feeling.

Examples are youtu.be , goo.gl , redd.it , cbsn.ws

Yes I agree with all of the above. And with my fixation on URL shorteners, I did have a dream of creating a full fledged URL shortening service like yours. I wasn't technically skilled enough for that then and thus didn't do it but your site does look great!

Thanks. I started this since it had a low-entry barrier but, going from basic to a mature product was quite challenging and a great learning experience personally.

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