Build a URL Shortener with jQuery, PHP and MySQL

July 29, 2010

URL shorteners such as TinyURL and bit.ly are all the rage these days, with their popularity having skyrocketed alongside Twitter and mobile device usage. The idea is a fairly simple one: accept as input an unacceptably long URL and provide in return one that fits into the tiny confines of a mobile device and Twitter's 140-character limit. Afterwards, anytime the abbreviated URL is clicked, the user is first sent to the shortening service, at which point the abbreviated URL is compared with a database, the original URL retrieved, and the user redirected to the desired location.

Beyond being able to provide the immediate utility of abbreviating a lengthy URL, URL shortening services are able to provide users with a number of other useful features, such as clickthrough statistics, referrer details, and even information about link diffusion such as who else has mentioned it on Twitter....

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Source: developer.com