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The World's Longest URL “Shortener” (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...)
45 points by josmek on March 28, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 31 comments


Hey All, OP here, contrary to popular belief I did not make this :) I saw it on GitHub when I noticed someone who starred the Prefect repo had the username `programming`, clicked their profile and saw this: https://github.com/programming/aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... and just thought it was hilarious. Knew you all would get a kick out of it!


The way GitHub displays it [1] is equally great too.

[1] - https://i.imgur.com/mPqrvaU.png


And here I was wondering why my repo was suddenly getting starred. Glad you enjoyed my work and thanks for sharing it!


Good job! Reminds me of my favorite email service http://abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza....


I'm open to requests for anyone wanting to get their own aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com email forwarder.


Here's a shorter link:

http://aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...


And a link to this discussion:

    http://aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com/#AAaaAaaAAAAAAAAAAAaAaaAaAAaaAaaAaAaaAaaA


The query assigned looks to be random a & A, this is genius.

Watch out for my knock off, bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb.com


If you are going for the longest possible URLls they all should be 2047 characters long[0]

[0] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/417142/what-is-the-maxim...


http://aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

The race is to get the longest shortened URL


Wow - this domain name causes HN to be wider than the screen on mobile!


Should make a knockoff with wwwwwwwww's since those are the widest characters (in non-fixed width fonts)


How about a version of this that just uses a’s (or A’s), based on the number of a’s in the URL?


Wondering if it is just fun project or there is real world application for this idea?


Mostly for fun. I'd be surprised if there were any real life applications for this!


How many A's is that? I can't really tell on mobile.


63 a

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com


63


Haaaaa haaaaa haaaa


Hacker news tested, Tarzan approved.


Thank god for people like you


How does this work?


The source code (JavaScript) is quite readable.

This seems to be the backing store:

https://www.jsonstore.io/9cfa993cd55704f2254949dc21a5f3a7a63...

With the ability to get a specific key from this style of URL:

https://www.jsonstore.io/9cfa993cd55704f2254949dc21a5f3a7a63...

And post to it to set a value.

There's no security though - anyone can overwrite any URL - e.g. in the console on that page:

    pushJSON(endpoint + '/AAAAaaAaAaaAAaaAAAAAaAAAAaAAaAAaaaAAAAaA', 'http://www.example.com/');


Looks like there's a limit to the number of urls shortened... it's throwing out the old ones. Womp, womp. :P


Or some people are Curling random stuff into the JSON endpoint


I'd bet money it's just binary represented in uppercase and lowercase.

AAaAAaAAaaaaaaaaaaAaAAaaAAAaAAaAAAaa = 110110110000000000101100111011011100 = [Some ID in the database]


Cool stuff.


[flagged]


WARNING! NSFW


I changed it back to Google.

  curl -X DELETE https://www.jsonstore.io/9cfa993cd55704f2254949dc21a5f3a7a63ae2c6425fb242b575a1951d359b69/AaaaAaAaAAaaAAAAaaaaAAaAaAAAAaaAaAaaAaAa
  curl -X POST -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{"AaaaAaAaAAaaAAAAaaaaAAaAaAAAAaaAaAaaAaAa": "https://google.com/"}' https://www.jsonstore.io/9cfa993cd55704f2254949dc21a5f3a7a63ae2c6425fb242b575a1951d359b69
I was considering pointing it to my GitHub instead, but decided it was too shameless.


In general terms, what was it?


I just opened this in office. Darn it!




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