That looks great, I've added Chhoto URL to OpenAltFinder as well.
this post was submitted on 13 May 2026
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Thanks. Just a small correction. The API isn't really REST, it's REST-ish but probably closer to JSON-RPC.
This is very cool. I like your github write up a lot. Hosted.
Thanks. Hope you like it.
This looks pretty interesting. I have been passively looking for such a service. I will give this a whirl and try it out.
Hope you like it.
Opening the shortened URL in your browser will instantly redirect you to the correct long URL. (So no stupid redirection pages.)
an interstitial or redirect page would be a security feature, especially for a shortener open to the public.
Can you elaborate? Seems interesting.
bad actors use shorteners to mask the actual url of their pages so their potential victims don't know where they're going until it is, perhaps, 'too late'
That could be, but I don't think that it should be relied upon. The shortener itself can execute malicious code, so that kind of security is, in my opinion, essentially theatre. I'd just say that don't click on links that you don't trust.
This project is for own use/use with friends/family/internally in an org etc., where trust isn't an issue. Of course, I cannot stop anyone from using it in any other way that they see fit. It can help shorten annoying long links, but that's it.
Didn't down vote you, but if someone clicks a link without, at the very least, mousing over it to view the url, then you get what you get. One of the most effective anti-virus programs you can ever deploy on any system is your own prudence and discretion. It's not the fault of the url shortner, it's the moron clicking indiscriminately.
But it's a shortened url. You can't simply mouse over it?
Edit: oh, I think you're taking about an interstitial?
Url un-shortners exist.
those "morons" represent the vast majority of internet users.
Dude...one of the most cornball things I've ever heard in my life but has some truth to it is 'You can't fix stupid.' It's 2026! Spool up. I would guess that the biggest portion of those morons are boomers, yet still, it's 2026. I'm sorry to sound so harsh but I really tire of the older set especially, but pretty much anyone in a technologically developed country claiming not to be technologically inclined. They had no flipping problem learning FaceBook. 'How to Use A Computer Tutorial' search turns up thousands of tutorials on that very topic. Unless you live in a remote area or a technologically underdeveloped country where technology is not readily accessible to the common man, then yeah. I'm a septuagenarian and I learned. I have no certs, or diplomas, or any thing, which should be obvious, but I get by pretty decent I'd say. It's pretty much attainable by the vast majority of people if they'd only put a little effort into it.
/rant
Optimizing a dead internet engine
Huh?
OP says he wants to optimize thousands of shortened URLs as fast as possible. As soon as that sqlite db goes, any references to the shortened links go with it. Part of the Internet dies.