Friendly Social URLs Using Redirects
Have you ever thought it would be nice to be able to easily give someone the URL to your Facebook profile? It’s not easy with the id number URL that Facebook uses. Just try saying “go to facebook dot com slash profile dot php question mark id equals six hundred and five million seven hundred seventy six thousand fifty seven”. Bzzzt, nope. Even something as easy as a custom URL for LinkedIn can be hard to remember. It hit me the other day that there is a really easy solution to this!
If you have your own domain name, and host the DNS somewhere, you are almost guaranteed to be able to easily create URL redirects. I use Namecheap and it is very easy to do. I created these URL redirects to make it a lot easier to tell people where to find me!
| Friendly | Destination |
|---|---|
| facebook.thingelstad.com | www.facebook.com/profile.p… |
| flickr.thingelstad.com | www.flickr.com/photos/jt… |
| linkedin.thingelstad.com | www.linkedin.com/in/jthing… |
| reader.thingelstad.com | www.google.com/reader/sh… |
| twitter.thingelstad.com | twitter.com/thingles |
It’s so much easier to say “Just go to flickr.thingelstad.com” to see my pictures on Flickr! Or “go to facebook.thingelstad.com”. Even Twitter allows people to just know my name, and not need to remember my Twitter username, and just go to twitter.thingelstad.com!
Nice huh? I like it.