how does tinyurl work?

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

There is absolutely no need for tiny URLS in an ebook.

...

I agree with everything Turtle91 has said, I would either go with the "Long" or "Medium" version.

But I wanted to expand on this for a few points as well:

1. If this book also has a physical version, you will want to stick with that version as closely as possible.

2. If TinyURL (or whatever redirection service) goes down, the URL itself will become worthless.

3. "Formality" issues... If working on a Non-fiction book, a URL shortener might be seen as informal by some readers. Best to err on the side of caution and stick with the original link, even if it may sometimes be unsightly.

There is some more discussion here:

http://writers.stackexchange.com/que...aper-citations

http://www.slaw.ca/2009/07/14/citati...shortened-url/

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

There is some more discussion here:

http://writers.stackexchange.com/que...aper-citations

http://www.slaw.ca/2009/07/14/citati...shortened-url/

Thanks for the references, Tex - though they seem to contradict what you said. I'll check with the author if I get another ebook to design which has very long URLs.

[Jellby]

If the links refer to some kind of "real" document (a journal article, a directive, etc.) rather than something like a blog or forum post, maybe it has an associated DOI. If that's the case, you can simply use the DOI number (and even construct the target address as http://dx.doi.org/DOI)

In other cases, maybe you can indicate the title or search term, if that makes it possible for the user to easily get there. For instance:

Wikipedia entry for "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier>Digital object identifier</a>"

The user can click on the link or enter the article title in Wikipedia (which we'll assume the user knows how to get to), no need to write the full URL.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks for the references, Tex - though they seem to contradict what you said.

Indeed... it seems as if there is no "official" stance, just people on both side of the fence! I just threw in those two discussions to get even more opinions on both sides.

I personally could have seen URL shorteners making SOME sense in a physical version of a hyperlink, since typing out tens of characters might become burdensome, but with a digital version of the book, you can copy/paste easily, or hide the exact link in the HTML... therefore, I see no need for a URL shortening service. (Hence, me siding more with Turtle91).

As a side note, another thing which just popped into my head was on some networks, the Network Administrator may mass block certain categories of domains.

For example, many libraries may block a URL shortening service (as it could potentially be used to get around some simpler website blocking implementations).

If you are typing in the direct link to the website, you may be able to make it to http://whitehouse.gov, but a tinyurl link pointing to the same (legitimate) domain may be blocked.

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I'll check with the author if I get another ebook to design which has very long URLs.

Almost all of this is just opinions here and there on both sides of the fence (like much of the English language/rules).

Almost all of my work is done on Non-Fiction Physical (PDF) -> Digital (EPUB) conversions... so I tend to err on the side of the "more formal" fence, and keeping the text EXACTLY how it was in the physical version of the book.