Inspiration

URL shortners aren’t always pretty, unless you take the trouble of setting custom URLs they end up looking like this https://bit.ly/2MQy8eo.

These URLs work fine till they are constrained on the web. They are not ideal for word-of-mouth reach, literally. Saying “bit dot lee slash two nine lowercase e uppercase u lowercase b lowercase x lowercase z” makes it harder for both the speaker to say correctly and the listener to remember it, get one character wrong and the shortened URL is useless. Custom URLs are one possible solution but they require one extra step for the user to input something unique and don’t help if automating URL shorteners is a requirement.

Design decisions

I decided to use a collection of the 5000 most commonly used English words to frame my URLs. Another decison I took was to only use rhyming english words. This further reduces uncertainty as it is far easier to remember, for example: trim.kim/CopCropChop. The combination of using 5000 most commonly used english words that also rhyme makes the URL memorable and enunciable.

One disadvantage is that they dont end up shortening URLs really. Rhyming words sometimes get pretty long. (Good luck sticking to the 140 character limit with these short URLs.)

Github repo

Feedback and planned features

• Analytics for URLs
• With user permission, parse the content of URL and pick rhyming words
• Use some combination of adjectivte+noun+verb to make it more memorable (ex: SmartBoyRuns)