Thanks to Brian Solis and Jess3 for including Culld.us in their Twitterverse diagram.

I promptly blocked their IP, wiped the offending URLs from the system and reset the cache.

This experience brings to mind an after hours conversation I had with a couple U of MN network security guys about inherent security risks of short URL services.

Cullect currently recognizes 83 URL shortening services.

EIGHTY-THREE

I’m hard pressed to think of 83 providers of anything (outside of entertainment services). That’s a measure of demand if anything. Even more reason publishers should – as Dave Winer recommends – pull this capability under their own umbrella.

“Every web app that produces long urls should provide a built-in url-shortening facility.” – Dave Winer

“I give an honorable mention to Minnesota based culld.us from Garrick Van Buren as well.” – Lee Odden

Thanks Lee.

Four differentiating features of Culld.us

• Available for your own domain (like http://minnpo.st & http://grv.me) in just 2 steps)
• Built-in Twitter client, supporting multiple Twitter accounts
• Uses 301 redirects
• Easily embed-able into your own blog/website (look for ’short link’ at the bottom of this post).

2 Comments

• At January 12, 2009, Mike Keliher wrote:

  And guess who helped that cause along? :)

• At January 12, 2009, Garrick Van Buren wrote:

  Mike, of course, a million thanks.

So, just in time for a your revised holiday shopping, IWouldHaveBoughtYouThis.com is the latest site to using Cullect’s URL shortening API.

Enter the link to Apple’s iPhone, a ride-on triceratops, or a new Audi A3 into the textfield, and IWouldHaveBoughtYouThis.com returns a ‘wrapped’ URL to share….cause it’s the thought that counts

I’m very pleased to announce MinnPo.st – the branded URL shortener for Minnesota’s nonprofit journalism enterprise – MinnPost.com. MinnPo.st is the first private-label URL shortener powered by Cullect.com’s API.

For the writers and reporters at MinnPost.com, MinnPo.st has the exact same features as Cullect’s own Culld.us URL shortener – like click counting and posting to Twitter – but with a brand their readers recognize.

For an example of how Karl Pearson-Cater, David Brauer, and the rest of the MinnPost.com team is using MinnPo.st: minnpo.st Twitter Search.

2 Comments

• At December 30, 2008, Minnesotans Making an Impression - Garrick Van Buren | Minneapolis Metblogs wrote:

  [...] Related:  Here’s my Cullect feed Cullect Wiki Cullect big rules Culld.us  MinnPost.com’s Branded URL Shortener Powered by Cullect [...]

• At January 17, 2009, Herding Your Online Cats | Minnov8: Minnesota Innovation in Internet and Web Technology wrote:

  [...] relevant, important stories from your huge array of news and blog feeds. They also created a branded URL shortener for MinnPost, a very important tactical requirement for many social media uses like Twitter [...]

To Receive a Shortened URL for your domain from Cullect:
Add the Cullect Item Stats javascript widget to an HTML page, passing it a long URL and your domain:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cullect.com/item.js?only_link=1&link=[the-really-long-url]&domain=mine.url"></script>

To Redirect a Shortened URL from your domain
Add the Cullect redirect to your .htaccess file:
RewriteRule ^(l?[0-9]*)$ http://cullect.com/redirect/$1?domain=mine.url [L]

You now have your own custom domain URL shortener with all the bells and whistles Culld.us has. For extra credit – play around with the options in the Cullect Item Stats widget

1 Comments

• At January 8, 2009, Lee Odden Gives Culld.Us a +1 Mention : Blog.Cullect.com wrote:

  [...] HOW TO: Build Your Own URL Shortener in 2 Steps [...]

Here’s a screencast of how it works:

Developer’s Note: Culld.us is built entirely on Cullect’s Item Stats widget. So, you can easily integrate Culld.us into your WordPress blog or other publishing system and see Cullect statistics on everything you publish.

1. An item’s ‘Short link’ from Culld.us
2. The number of times a given post has been ‘Recommended’ in Cullect (this won’t show if the number is 0)

Here’s the code for the widget:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cullect.com/item.js?link=[items-permalink]"></script>

If you’re using WordPress and comfortable hacking your template, paste this code:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cullect.com/item.js?link=<?php the_permalink() ?>"></script>

1 Comments

• At April 23, 2009, In Beta: Comment via Cullect : Blog.Cullect.com wrote:

  [...] via Cullect’ is a re-working of the Item Stats widget that’s driving the URL [...]

Same goes for each page with any Cullect widget on it.

It feels good to tie everything together.