Krunchd: Another URL Shortener... with an Interesting Twist
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we're no strangers to URL shortening services. We use them all of the time - and we're proponents of using something other than TinyURL. But with the vast array of URL shortening services out there, it generally takes something interesting to turn our heads. Now, a new URL shortener called Krunchd has done just that, by providing a feature that has less to do with shortening URLs and more to do with how we communicate with URLs on a regular basis.
Like any number of services out there, Krunchd provides the prerequisite URL shortening functions: a way to customize your link with a memorable phrase (of up to 12 characters), tagging, and, of course, the shortened URL.
What makes Krunchd special is how many URLs it allows you to shorten at once. You see, with Krunchd, you're not just shortening one URL, you're crunching (pun intended) an entire list of URLs into one short URL. It's a concept similar to Agglom. Only instead of using browser tabs, it brings the recipient to a list of URLs you'd like to share.
Example? Let's say I want to share the Twitter accounts for the RWW writers. Usually, I'd have to send a bunch of separate links, but with Krunchd, it just takes this one URL.
Granted, this isn't technological rocket surgery, but conceptually, it's an interesting take on the problem of sharing URLs with your peers. What's more, it's taking into consideration the way many of us share URLs today. We're not always sharing multiple resources, but when we are, this approach makes a great deal of sense.
As an added bonus - given that the service is new - early users also gain the benefit of getting a really short URL. The service is currently auto-generating URLs that only add 2 additional characters to the Krunchd URL.
While the idea is thoughtful, there is one obvious drawback to Krunchd. And it's something that will likely prevent me from using it: they require you to provide an email address to use the service. There is no privacy policy posted, so I've no idea what they're doing with this information. Even more importantly, I've no idea why they think they need it.
That said, the next time you have a bunch of URLs that you have to share, it may be worth giving Krunchd a try - if the email address thing doesn't bug you.
[UPDATE] Krunchd has removed the email requirement, indicating that it is only necessary if you're interested in modifying your list of URLs in the future. They have also added a privacy statement.
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That's a cool idea. I'd love the way Agglom works, would like to see a bookmarklet like that for this. Ultimately, though, everytime someone uses a URL shortener other than Bit.ly, an angel or a fairy drops dead on the spot. Bit.ly's semantic and geolocation parsing, with API = giving back to everyone and leveraging this activity to accomplish even more. That's what I think! :)
Nice one, too bad "Krunchd" isn't very easy to type/remember. With tinyurl, I've generated many shortcuts to complex domains and I remember most of them. "tinyurl.com/the-first-post" is a lot simpler than "kdunchd.com/thefirstpost" (only 12 characters allowed).
Interesting idea, but the email address thing AND a captcha? They must be kidding. Either is enough to reduce their traffic by half - together, they'll reduce it to practically zero, with any luck. Next!
thanks..
Interesting app, but good point on the privacy issue with e-mail.
Perhaps their attention will be drawn to this article and they'll resolve this before all of the interesting URL's go.
Correct me if I am wrong can I call this to similar to shrink2one ,converting multiple links to single link there is also privacy problems with shrink2one.
Great post, thank you:-)
Do I need to point out the rank irony of the 'Email Address (required)' field at the bottom of this page? And the only mention of 'privacy policy' anywhere on this page, is where you criticise krunchd for not having it.
Yeah you're probably trying to track and fight spammers but you know what, I bet spammers would love to abuse URL shorteners to disguise the bad-rep domain names they commonly link to.
You need to stop the hypocrisy and either give krunchd a break or open up your comments system to non-email-associated input, or post your own privacy policy on this, or all of the above!
You walked right into this one.
whit.me (http://whit.me) provides all of these services, without the burden of captcha/email confirmation, as well as a cleaner, simpler UI.
And it provides seamless integration of url expansion to external websites (see http://www.whit.me/api/docs#html for live examples).
Disclaimer: I created whit.me.
LinkBunch did it first and a whole lot easier.
Perhaps the email address is a way to allow you to edit the URLs in the Krunchd list at a later time? For example, you could add additional URLs to your Krunchd twitter url list?
Thank you for all your comments:
We will take into consideration your feed back and improve our service much more.
The only hint I can give is that our service is aimed to be MUCH more than just a URL shortener - with our future APIs and collaboration features in place, this will be a web publisher's Swiss Army Knife, so to speak.
Wow, looks like a cool and useful service!
jess
www.privacy.de.tc
"Email is not mandatory, but if you want to be able to modify your list later, you need to provide the email. Your email is kept confidential. "
-Krunchd
I use LinkBunch
Posted by: thejeshgn.com
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December 22, 2008 9:28 PM
@Patrick Thanks! Looks like Krunchd added that disclaimer and a privacy policy. Very cool.
Its just similar to http://Shrink2one.com
I found shrink2one has more features richer like password protection and Firefox extention to convert all open tabs to one shrunk link. for more info checkout at http://blog.shrink2one.com/2008/11/new-shrink2one-firefox-extension.html
Great post, thank you:-))
This did not work for me. I inputted http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728164523&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
I could see that complete text in the input area.
It generated a short URL for me
http://krunchd.com/f0b11
But when I clicked on that, I got a “The page cannot be displayed” The URL at the top had:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728164523
The system truncated the text after the numerals. I tried this twice more, always with same result.
http://kiq.me/ crunch your url and give you a datamatrix you can use to capture the crunched url with your cellphone.
thanks..
Hey Everyone,
I would just like to let everyone know that almost all of the features and issues discussed in the above comments have been dealt with. If you run into any more, or would like to recommend some additional features please email us or comment on our blog! Thank you!