Simplifying Google Groups URLs
If the Google Groups URLs are a little too unwieldy, the Google Groups Simplifier will cut them down to size.
Google Groups [Hack #30] can produce some rather abominable URLs for individual posts. One message can generate a URL the likes of:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=O%27reilly+%22mac+os+x%22 &hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&scoring=d &selm=ujaotqldn50o04%40corp.supernews.com&rnum=37
This is a difficult URL to save and referenceânot to mention emailing to a colleague.
Andrew Fleggâs Google Groups Simplifier (http://www.bleb.org/google/) munges Groups URLs, compacting them down into something more manageable yet still allowing them to function as before.
This is a handy little tool. To use, it copy the URL that you want to make smaller and paste it into the form on the Google Groups Simplifier page. The URL above simplifies to:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=ujaotqldn50o04%40 corp.supernews.com
Tip
Note that this URL is from an individually viewed message and not from a message thread (which is several messages in a framed page). If you try to simplify a threadâs URL, youâll get an error message from the Google Groups Simplifier.
How does this work? The Google Groups Simplifier chops off everything
but the &selm=
part. Not very difficult to do,
but the URLs are so large that itâs handy to have an
automated way to do it so you donât remove more of
the URL than you need to.
If you plan to use this tool a lot, the Simplifer also offers ...
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