URL Longifyers

Lately, there’s been some buzz on URL shorteners and the disadvantages of using them. Sites like TinyURL provide convenient ways to shorten bulky links (think links from eBay or customized Google Maps with 8 stops), which are handy when you need to squeeze a message under the Twitter cap of 140 characters. On the other hand, URL shorteners mask the link source, create more middlemen and use additional resources, and should the shortener ever go offline, thousands of links would instantly break. Personally, I think it’s bad form to send people to unknown links, but have occasionally used shorteners to get around message length maximums.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, perhaps you have looked at a URL and thought, “That’s not long enough.” (Cue “That’s what she said.”) Enter FreakingHugeUrl to longify URLs to your heart’s desire. As you can see, my original 42-character URL has been transmogrified into a whopping 651-character behemoth as follows:

http://www.freakinghugeurl.com/refer.php?count=8&url=Vm0weGQxSXhiRmRYV0d4VVYwZG9XRll3WkZ
OVU1WcHpXa2M1VjJKSGVGWlZiVEZIWVd4S2MxTnNXb
FppVkZaeVZteGtTMUl4VG5OWGJGcE9ZbTFvVFZkWGR
HdFRNVTVYVW01S2FsSnVRbGxWTUZaTFUxWmFjbFZy
WkZoaVZrWTFWVEowVjFkSFNraFZia0pYVFVaYVRGVn
NXbXRXTVZaeVdrWm9hVlpyV1RGV2EyUXdZekZhV0ZO
clpGaGlSa3BvVm1wT1UyRkdXbGRYYlhScVlrZDBObGxW
V2xOVWJGcDFVV3RvVjFKRldtaFdha1poVjBaT2NtSkdTb
WxTTTJoWVYxZDRiMVV3TUhoalJscFlZbGhTV0ZSV1du
ZGxiRlY1WTNwV1YwMVdjRWRXTW5CaFZqRmFkRlZVUW
xwaGExcFlWV3BHYTJNeVJraGxSazVPWWxkb2RsWnRNW
GRVTWtsNVVtdGtXR0pyTlZsWmExcDNZekZhY1ZKdFJsU
mlSbkJKV2xWa1IxWlhTa2RqUmxwWFlsaFNkbFpxUmxwbG
JVWkpWMnh3VjAweWFFVldiR1EwVVRGYVZrMVZWazVTU
kVFNQ==