Personally, I see this as a great failure on Twitter’s part to respond to its users. The best advice given to startups is to watch how users are using the service, and adapt to fit their usage. Why not say that URLs just count for 10 characters, and your actual message is what needs to be brief?

I guess one argument for putting up with shortened-URLs is that you’re really clicking the link based on the fact your friend recommended it, and the reason they gave - not because of the destination per se. Given the limited space the friend has to describe the link, I sometimes find I’ve already seen the page, but only realise that once Tiny URL has sent me there…

From Twitter’s own perspective, it also pollutes the marketing message (adding ‘except for links’… to their tag line). It would be a bit tragic if people started encoding lengthy messages in the form of a dummy URL! Also, it is possible they have some reason to discourage Twitter from becoming a bookmarking service.

Anyway, this whole Tiny URL situation made me feel ill, so I built a GreaseMonkey script to convert all URLs into their redirected equivalents. Yes, I’m using the Twitter web site on the whole - I’m obviously scared of installing a decent client.

You can install GreaseMonkey for Firefox then find my script here.

To be sure of expanding all the various URL-shortening services reliably and consistently, it sends all links it finds on the page to a web service running on my server which then returns the results. This is because the GM httprequest function automatically follows redirects without worrying the script about it, whereas all along all the script wanted was to see the initial Location redirect.

Since I developed this, I’ve come across Power Twitter which is a full Firefox plugin (an xpi file). This does something similar (although displays the destination page’s title instead of the URL) and some other stuff too, related to Flickr and YouTube.

Does anyone know of a lightweight desktop Twitter client that shares my upset at these obscured links? Even so, it all seems a bit unnecessary when Twitter could solve everyone’s problems centrally in one go.

Or does anyone prefer the obscured URLs…?

I would like to invite developers to create OpenSocket as an open source initiative. Please read my frequently never-been-asked questions below!

Wouldn’t this project become obsolete as soon as Facebook takes our lead and announces its own effort to implement OpenSocial?

Yes, I see this project as a petition - and far more convincing than a list of email addresses or signatures. OpenSocket would demonstrate to Facebook that they have nothing to lose by joining in. (And there’s a bit more to it than that - keep reading.)

Are you trying to upset someone?

Not at all - it would be politically-sensitive for anyone other than a third party to attempt this. Google is unlikely to interfere with the Facebook platform when they (say they would) prefer to have their direct involvement. For Facebook, our project would provide a PR-friendly way to eventually embrace OpenSocial: “see, Platform was already open enough that - in a way - it was enabled for OpenSocial from the start; and since it’s now possible to use OpenSocial apps within Facebook anyway, we might as well just build full support…”

Wouldn’t it be ironic if our efforts made Facebook able to support OpenSocial before MySpace and others…?

Ha ha ha, you know some good jokes!

Hilarious! OK, so what form would the project take?

There would be two side-by-side projects:

• OpenSocket - a Facebook app that allows users to pin-point an OpenSocial gadget and use it within the Facebook environment. OpenSocial developers would be able to direct users in the other direction, with a link to “host in Facebook via OpenSocket”.
• OpenLock - a ’switching mechanism’ that allows multiple versions of the app to exist at once. A developer would set up an instance to host their particular task, and build it on top of the latest stable development release. Eventually, this could allow operation of the app taking modules from different instances. In its simplest form, it would just be a way to collaborate on a task without having to set up a new app each time; and on completion different tasks will be sitting side-by-side on the same server for easier comparing and committing.

But a successful Facebook app needs hosting, not just code

From the developers’ points of view, that’s why OpenLock might be useful - with a social app you can’t just download the source, change it locally, then check it back in. You also need ‘friends’ to help test features, and fellow developers can be invited to do so via OpenLock.

And ‘hosting’ is why OpenSocket should be open source: I will sort out hosting for our experiment, but it is important that larger OpenSocial projects could just take our code and implement their own container specific to their app, especially if they have different requirements.

What will the future hold?

Hopefully, we’ll set new standards in terms of open source collaboration on a social web app. While OpenSocket is likely to be more interesting to work on, in the long-term something along the lines of OpenLock could become more useful.

Work on OpenSocket will put us in a great position to do interesting things as the platform evolves - perhaps even the reverse set-up, i.e. mapping Facebook apps to the OpenSocial platform, which would actually be more lucrative at the moment, as Lee commented on the blog post linked earlier.

And if the petition is successful in changing Facebook’s stance, everyone involved gets an ‘I opened up Facebook’ certificate.

So, what’s in it for me?

Apart from playing a part in the revolution, you mean?! Being able to say “I worked on both at the same” when a potential employer asks about your OpenSocial and Facebook experience? Moreover, building an open source project as a Facebook app will break new ground - and one aim of this project is to build the framework for multiple, distributed developers to collaborate on a project.

What should I do if I’m interested?

Oh, sit on the sidelines, just check up on the project once in a while… Don’t bother getting involved.

Get in touch! Let me know a bit about your skills and interests. There’s room for everyone!

Prefer it to what? Well, real life, I suppose: that biological relic of the past billion years, the physical construct that brought us to the information age.

I first realised that I was through with real life on a visit to a bookshop. On Fillmore Street in San Francisco, there’s a small bookshop called ‘Browser Books’. It always impresses me when a small business owner runs a vibrant enterprise, and the chap in charge here opens until late at night, engages with the customers, enthuses about books, and does all the other things that a good business owner should do.

Over my month’s sojourn in Pacific Heights I’ve been known to walk in here after dinner, have a look around, and chat to the owner (alright, I’m not that sociable - I just asked him if he sold birthday cards too). If I find a book I want to buy, then I’ll buy it - on Amazon, for half the price. Waiting a few days for delivery doesn’t matter if I already have a couple of books I need to finish anyway. This particular book-buying routine doesn’t mark my turning point, by the way; this is actually an example of the real world and the internet world working side by side, complementing each other.

My final moment of true contentment with the real world occurred on the door step of this bookshop. As I was walking past, I thought I’d see if they have any books on, let’s say, ‘good blogging style’ (as you can infer, I did not find such a book). Anyway, I was about to walk inside, locate a suitable section (’writing’ or ‘education’, maybe?), take a few books from the shelves, and see if the tiny bookshop has anything worth reading. Suddenly in my mind, I compared this to typing in ‘blogging style’ or similar into Amazon’s search bar. I’d be able to view a wider range, read some reviews, and not have to worry about putting the books back on the right shelves.

I just turned round in the doorway and went back home.

Since then, I’ve seen real life as the chore that it really is. Everything about it requires far too much effort. Having to go out to get some food annoys me now. I’m not saying I can’t enjoy eating food, in the right place and in the right company (and with the right food). But the necessity of it… well, just seems unnecessary.

You could argue that such tasks are comparable to installing a server, defragmenting your hard drive, or whatever other maintenance a virtual existence requires. The problem with real life is that is difficult to outsource a lot of these things conveniently.

So that’s my conclusion. Real life is now unnecessary. Let’s get everything on-line.

That’s right, I’m lolling about in San Francisco, spending plenty of time on the internet, and enjoying lunch in the park. Sitting in the sunshine at Alta Plaza, you can glimpse the sea between the grand houses on Broadway. If you stand on certain benches you can catch the red of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s very American Dream: they show you enough of the beautiful view to tempt you, but you have to be rich to actually buy the houses watching over a sweep of the bay from the far Pacific round to Alcatraz and beyond. But don’t worry, everyone’s allowed to become a billionaire.

An age-old rumour is that the USA loves people from Britain. If it was ever true, it turns out to have been a fad; apparently, speakers with a French twang are all the rage these days. Still, I’ve always wanted to be part of a minority and at least I stand out a little here. I’m quite sure that in the kitchens of Noah’s Bagels they have conversations running something like this:

“You know that irritating little English bloke who comes in here from time to time?”

“Oh yeah…”

“Well, don’t you think he has a stupid face?”

“Yes! I’d been thinking that too!”

You see! They remember who I am!