[Sigia-l] Alternatives to long string URLs for e-mail linking

[Avi Rappoport]

I have some info on URL rewriting that was requested by Lou to help 
people understand how to feed robots better.  I think some of the 
techniques could be used for shortening URLs as well:

<http://www.searchtools.com/robots/goodurls.html>

Avi

At 10:58 AM +1100 12/11/02, Stephen Holmes wrote:
>PROBLEM SYNOPSIS
>
>One problem I'm having was recently mentioned in a TidBITS article 
>about  a product report where they complained about very long URL 
>strings generated by CMS databases. It makes adding a URL link in an 
>e-mail a problem.
>
>Long strings mean that the traditional 70 or 80 character e-mail 
>width was not big enough to hold a URL, so only the first line would 
>be converted to an active link by a user's e-mail client. I use N7, 
>for instance which handles an e-mail according to the settings of 
>the client that sent the message - some wrap, some don't.
>
>Often users didn't know that they could manually copy and paste a 
>URL from an e-mail and so when they click on that first line link 
>they get an error message or - if the webmaster is on the ball - a 
>redirect to a help page.


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