(OT) Life span of tinyurls?

Does anyone know what the life span is of a 'tiny url' link? Do they
expire after a set period of time?

I ask because I see many links posted as just the 'tiny url' and
wonder what will happen in a month, six months, a year. Will the 'tiny
url' link still be active, or is the link lost to anyone looking
through the archive of, say, a newsgroup?

Dan Daniel wrote:
Does anyone know what the life span is of a 'tiny url' link? Do they
expire after a set period of time?

I ask because I see many links posted as just the 'tiny url' and
wonder what will happen in a month, six months, a year. Will the 'tiny
url' link still be active, or is the link lost to anyone looking
through the archive of, say, a newsgroup?

Interesting question -- went on a little non-scientific research effort.
Search the google archives using the term "tinyurl.com" and found the
earliest date to be from 3 Feb, 2002. The link still worked. I tried a few
others and most worked fine. Their copywrite banner states 2002 to 2004 so
I doubt there's any chance of finding anything prior.

Interestingly enough, the earliest link I could find was this:
http://tinyurl.com/o which links to a unicyle shop (.....he writes as he
skillfully brings the thread almost back on topic.)

Tom

In article fs6Dc.25503$cj3.7269@lakeread01,
"tcmedara" wrote:

Dan Daniel wrote:
Does anyone know what the life span is of a 'tiny url' link? Do they
expire after a set period of time?

I ask because I see many links posted as just the 'tiny url' and
wonder what will happen in a month, six months, a year. Will the 'tiny
url' link still be active, or is the link lost to anyone looking
through the archive of, say, a newsgroup?

Interesting question -- went on a little non-scientific research effort.
Search the google archives using the term "tinyurl.com" and found the
earliest date to be from 3 Feb, 2002. The link still worked. I tried a few
others and most worked fine. Their copywrite banner states 2002 to 2004 so
I doubt there's any chance of finding anything prior.

Tinyurl themselves says the links are permanent. Whether the referenced
page will outlast the tinyurl is another question.

Interestingly enough, the earliest link I could find was this:
http://tinyurl.com/o which links to a unicyle shop (.....he writes as he
skillfully brings the thread almost back on topic.)

Yes. Parts of that unicycle site are probably a great number of the
early Tinyurls, since I think one of the creators was a unicyclist.
tinyurl.com/1 (0 doesn't work) points at Gilby's site.

More topically, behold a...two-wheeled unicycle.

http://www.gilby.com/unicycling/photos/2wheeler/

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club