Some of you may have started to the notice large rise in the use of truncated URL's here on the site. For example:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=10
A few people have asked what they are for exactly. Well, don't worry they aren't some sort of covert tracking system. They are nothing more than an external linking engine for static site documents.
We call it HPC:QLink
(H/PC Quick Link
), it was written in house, by me as it happens. It's function is identical to the likes of TinyURL.
Take a long URL:
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15
Make is short
(er
):
http://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=2
OK, so that example isn't the longest URL on record. The main benefit however. Is that we can give out QLinks to external organisations, such as the software developer who we review for. Then, if we happen at some point to have a move around on the server, we can seamlessly change the links.
So no more 404 errors.
The HPC:Qlink system is only available to Admins to create new links, however we are giving some thought to making a second, public version available which you can all use.
In the mean time, if you are linking to us externally and happen to come accross a QLink to the resource. We would really like for you to use it.
Just like GoogleBot.
Thanks.
