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URL Shortners
after having a prolonged discussion on URL Shorteners and how they can be used programmatically. Let’s jot down a list of pros and cons of these services. URL shortening services have been around for longer than most people realize. The first notable URL Shortening service TinyUrl was released in 2002. Since then there was no looking back. With the advent in technology, URL Shortening services are also upgrading themselves by increasing the number of services they provide to the user. Apart from the URL Shortening service, they provide facility for tracking the activity on the shortened link which in technical terms we call Link Analytics. These services now days also provide a way to customize your Shortened URL in order to make it more attractive. But irony is, they are not a totally perfect solution. Now, let’s discuss about some pros and cons of URL Shortening service and how they affect the privacy and security of a user on online social media. Let’s start with pros first. Pros of URL Shorteners: Attractive: Using URL Shorteners on Online Social Media exactly started or we can say became popular due to Twitter. Due to character Limit on Twitter, it was difficult for users to share long links. This was the only reason that made these URL Shortening services more popular in a short span of time. With the advent of these services, User was able to share as much as long URL on Twitter by simply shortening the URL. Thus making the post more attractive and appealing to the audience/ followers. Link Analytics: Now a days majority of URL Shortening services provide a new feature, Tracking. For example, if we consider the case of Bitly, it provides Link Tracking feature. This feature enables the user to track the user activity-number of clicks, geographic location of the user who clicked the link on the shortened URL. This helps user to analyze the popularity of the link. Below is the sample snapshot of Link Analytics report of two links that were shortened using Bitly. Customization: URL Shortening services also provide another feature that helps user to customise the shortened link. This will help to add a string as per your choice or need to the Shortened URL, to make it look nicer and less random. Below is the sample snapshot of how customization can be done. For demonstration purpose, I have used the following long URL: Now let us have a look on Cons of URL Shortening Services. Cons of URL Shorteners: Abuse: URL Shortening services are a great source for spammers and hackers to get a hold of victim computer. They share a link and fool user into clicking the link. Thus, either setting up the virus in the victim computer or getting important user credentials through fake URL. This definitely breaches privacy and security of the user. It is very important to keep following points in mind: Always check the link before clicking it. The easiest way is just to place your cursor on the link and you will get an idea where shortened URL is exactly pointing. Do not click a link shared by unknown person. If a link is shared by email, read the email carefully for the signs of spammed email. If not a spam email, you can check where link directs and then click on the link. Do not share your important credentials like bank details, social media user id-password on such shared links. Due to such abuse of URL shortening services, many have been discontinued. It is very important and difficult to keep domain spam free. Dead Link: If the shortening service, that was used to shorten the URL is discontinued, Link will stop working. Thus, making it a Dead Link. These phenomena is also known as Linkrot Blocking: Some Social Media Platform do not accept shortened Links. For example, Wikipedia do not accept shortened Links. Yahoo!Answers blocks posts that contain links shortened using TinyUrl Shortening service. Advertising: We have discussed in the previous article about Adf.ly. This is a URL Shortening Service that allows user to earn by shortening a link or user can pay to advertise their website on Adf.ly homepage. It uses interstitial advertising for generating revenue. This may deter readers. Privacy and Security Breach: As discussed earlier, shortened URL can redirect to a spam or scam webpage. Thus, breaching the privacy and security of the users. Many shortening services provide an option of preview to the users to view the redirection of the link before clicking on it. For example, TinyUrl was declared unsafe by ZoneAlarm, stating that TimyUrl is known to spread spyware. To counter this problem, TinyUrl provides the option to preview the destination before clicking on the link, by simply adding the word preview to the shortened URL like this: Shortened URL: https://tinyurl.com/ycgpdnek Preview keyword added: https://preview.tinyurl.com/ycgpdnek Every Service has pros and cons but it’s upto us how we use it. It is better to use the service wisely, as in the era of social media every minute detail about us is online. Thus, making us more vulnerable.
Rahul Deswal
All About GATE
GATE(Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is one the most important and in-demand entrance exam for engineering graduates in our country. M.Tech. in Computer Science is one of the most demanding courses at prestigious institutes like IISCs and IITs. GATE(Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is one of the ways to get into these top institutes. Every year around 10 Lakh candidates apply for GATE exam and very few of them manage to ace the exam with good score. So the competition is clearly very tough and simply preparing without any strategy will make it difficult to land you into IISCs and IITs. Let us now concentrate on few Important points : 1) Analyze GATE syllabus: Start with analyzing the GATE syllabus. Start divide and Conquer, try to break the syllabus into sub-categories and do the same with each subject further. It will help you to prioritize subjects and important topics in each subject. After doing this, you will get a clear insight into where you stand and how far is left to cover. Analyzing syllabus will also help you to understand about the important subjects and pattern of GATE exam. 2) Start preparing today : Time is like money, so spend it wisely. The best time to start your GATE preparation is today, just after completing this read. Just pick one of the subjects you feel good and start the preparation. You may start with some easy and scoring subjects like DBMS, Operating Systems or Computer Networks(totally depends on individual). After completing first subject and its GATE questions, you can immediately pick the second subject. As soon as two subjects are completely covered, you will start feeling more confident. After completing one subject, the immediately next task should be solving previously asked GATE questions of that subject. It will help you to uncover weak topics; try to recover those weak topics and resolve those questions. 3) Follow a disciplined schedule : Make a schedule and follow it at any cost, literally. Decide a fixed number of hours for your GATE preparation and complete it daily; remember, consistency is a compulsion here. Maybe print a calendar from starting day to intended course completion day and stick it front of your study table. Every day you completed those hours, mark the date with green pen and do the same with red pen if you missed. 4) Take running notes while studying: Note down the important points in notebook while covering the topics. It will definitely help you in revisions. Decide one day in a week to revise one of your previously completed subjects and use your GATE notes here. 5) Subjects easy to score: There are few subjects which are easier to score, like Digital Logic, Mathematics and Aptitude. These three subjects cover 25-28% of complete GATE paper. Try not to leave these subjects uncovered as they are high scoring and will help to boost your GATE AIR. 6) Track your preparation periodically: Solve previous GATE question for each subject. It will help you to recall and revise the subjects. We highly recommend giving Sudo GATE subject-wise Test series since these tests are build on learning while solving approach. 7) Revise and practice are keys to GATE: After completing each subject, start revising each subject thoroughly. Revise the subject then solve previous year GATE questions and take subject-wise tests. Remember, the only keys to score good AIR is revise and practice more. 8) Take Mock Tests: At this final stage of preparation, practicing quality questions before attempting actual GATE will boost your confidence and improve your problem-solving speed. GeeksforGeeks has specially designed Sudo GATE Mock tests, which will help in boosting your GATE score. Questions in these Mock Test resembles with GATE actual questions and will give the GATE aspirants trailer before the Film. Use short notes : At this crucial stage, don’t try to read any new topic. Just use your Last Minutes Notes to recall only key points in each subject. We highly recommend using these LMNs, specially designed for last minutes preparation.
Campus Placements
ACADEMICS : Try to maintain good score, this doesn’t mean you have to top every subject but you should have at least a score that will make you eligible for most of the companies. Make sure you don’t fail in any subject in 3rd year, especially 6th semester. Very few companies allow candidates with live backlogs. Should have knowledge of subjects you study - Don’t have to be Einstein in every subject but at least those that you will be mentioning as your strength in resume. Apart from academics try to do few internships.