Google Hacks

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 reference—not to mention emailing to a colleague.

Andrew Flegg’s 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 thread’s URL, you’ll 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 it’s handy to have an automated way to do it so you don’t remove more of the URL than you need to.

If you plan to use this tool a lot, the Simplifer also offers a bookmarklet ...