Here is an article that is not about any of the “normal” topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is a topic that I suggest that all computer users should be familiar with:
URL is the abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. For instance, this newsletter’s home page is found at a URL of https://www.eogn.com.
When writing email messages, social media messages, web pages, articles for newsletters or magazines, or simply taking notes for your own usage later, it is easy to copy-and-paste a URL into the text. But what if you want to print your document out or give a presentation with the link? Many web addresses run 100 characters or longer and contain a mish-mash of upper and lower case letters, punctuation marks, and more. Try entering those into a web browser manually!
A long URL that is shortened by a URL shortener is the best idea for making web pages easier to share. Instead of 100+ character monstrosities that are ugly to look at and impossible to remember or type, using a URL shortener like TinyURL.com or bit.ly makes them much more manageable.
For instance, my recent article on “The New York Public Library’s Jewish Division Digitized 800 Years of Jewish History” refers to more information available at https://www.jta.org/2024/03/20/culture/the-new-york-public-librarys-jewish-division-digitized-800-years-of-jewish-history.
Would you like to enter that address into a web browser by hand? Or perhaps you would prefer to enter https://tinyurl.com/2rcv33jd?
You can find a lengthy list of other URL shorteners at: https://zapier.com/blog/best-url-shorteners/.