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Short Web Addresses for Melksham

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-05-30 08:25:08 - Graham Ellis

Web Addresses - URLs - get too long to remember, and they take up "real estate" in short messages. Which is why there are a number of shortening services out there, many of which are automatic. You really don't want to have to use up 60 characters of your 140 on Twitter with a URL, nor dictate 60 characters over the phone to someone. And have you ever had a URL sent to you in an email get an extra line break inserted because it's simply too long for the line?

But generalised shortening services often produce human-unfriendly URLs. Yes - they may be short, but they're also meaningless to the reader in themselves.

With a new short domain name I have just registered, and a PHP program (I'm teaching a PHP course this week) I've written to redirect, I've provided for myself (pure selfishness here!) quick and easy links to many local Melksham resources:

http://melksh.am/weather - Melksham's Weather
http://melksh.am/diary - Melksham Diary
http://melksh.am/driving - Driving distances and times to Melksham

http://melksh.am/town - Melksham Town Council
http://melksh.am/without - Melksham Without Parish Council
http://melksh.am/cap - Melksham Community Area Partnership

and links to some of my areas of specific interest:

http://melksh.am/museum - Melksham Museum
http://melksh.am/chamber - Chamber of Commerce
http://melksh.am/campus - Melksham Campus
http://melksh.am/twcrp - TransWilts Community Rail Partnership

not forgetting our own offerings, such as:

http://melksh.am/hotel - Our hotel in Melksham
http://melksh.am/cafe - Cafe - cream teas, coffees and more
http://melksh.am/course - Schedule of public open source courses

There are plenty more too - if you put in http://melksh.am/contents, you'll get a list. And please feel free to email me with any more suggestions!