Visualizing How Referly Works | Hacker News Reader

Visualizing How Referly Works

blog.refer.ly

9 pointsdmor9 comments

I love everything refer.ly has been doing lately. They are really on the right page and are putting together quite the service. Can't wait to see where it goes.

Any thoughts on having a bookmarklet? Seems like a pain to have to go back to referly to grab a shortened link instead of clicking a button on the page I'm on.

We actually have a (very handy) bookmarklet but I de-emphasized it so much in this design (buried on the right in tiny type as the second tip) that it makes it look like we don't have one.

I can see a v2 of this page reversing that and being almost all about the bookmarklet, with little or no mention of the form-based link shortener.

Ahh, I see it now. Definitely the route I would go.

This is a cool idea, my only concern is feeling icky about recommending things. Even if I really like a pair of shoes, will my friends believe me if they see I've got a refer.ly link attached to it? Or will they just think I'm trying to make a quick buck and I've been reincarnated as a spambot?

That's a good question. I think making sure to add a personal note would help explain why you recommend something, like "here's a great helmet for going river rafting with, I used it last weekend" or etc.

I get annoyed by stuff that doesn't have context, like those Spotify alerts in Facebook that just lists the track, as opposed to something like "our whole team is jamming to the Budos Band while we jam out the next release".

I'm on board the second I can get Refer.ly + Ifttt.com to work together.

Oh wow - great idea, I know just the person to chat with about that!

What you want that to look like?

I would love to be able to save links (star a RSS item for example) that automatically creates a Refer.ly link out of the original link.. I could just imagine a lot of other users if there were an API that ifttt could tap into.

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