Verisign has just launched a new product called Verisign Domain Hashlink
Here is the info from their site:
“Verisign Domain Hashlink makes URLs shorter, easy-to-remember and friendlier to your users.”
“You’ve worked hard to secure a web address – and keep its site content up-to-date, relevant and useful for its visitors. Now there’s a new way to help make it work even harder: by making things easier for everyone. And the best part is, it preserves – and empowers – your web address, which is really your unique brand and identity.”
“”Verisign Domain Hashlink is a vanity URL that lets you create shorter, more memorable URLs.
“”It’s designed to help users locate precise content on your website. It’s a brand new kind of website navigational tool. It’s also a handy shortcut to get someone exactly where you want them to be online: with a short, intuitive and easily remembered keyword or phrase preceded by a #, or hashtag symbol.
Verisign Domain Hashlink sends users quickly, easily and directly to a specific destination on your website.
How?
By aiding them with a keyword that you simply add to your webpage address. That keyword could be a product, topic, trend, person, event – whatever you choose. For instance, your web address plus #coupon would take users to a special page about a discount you are offering.
With Verisign Domain Hashlink, there’s no need for programming or development skills. You can pretty much create and manage your vanity URLs without the help of your IT staff. Set up new words on our secure site. Track keyword usage – even get keyword suggestions to improve site traffic.
Plus, Verisign Domain Hashlink’s reporting tool integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics for consistent feedback.
“Anyone who’s ever tried to create new or update existing URLs on their website knows:
“Anything with a forward slash requires IT help and additional programming, or at least someone tech-savvy. That all changes with Verisign Domain Hashlink. By using the # symbol in a shorter, friendlier URL, you can do nearly everything on your own.
“By streamlining the process of getting people from point A to B without a lot of effort or having to remember long and unwieldy URLs. Plus, unlike searching on social posting sites, Domain Hashlink gives you complete control over a user’s results – since you choose the keyword (hashtag) and the exact content it resolves to.”
I don’t get it. You can already do this without verisign can’t you. Just put a names anchor tag on your site. Isn’t this part of the HTML standard?
Also how does this in any world make urls shorter?
A slash is no problem for me.
What is going on here.
I really don’t get it.
Dude it’s just a URL rewriter. I read it again. For php folks it’s no different than editing your htaccess file. It has nothing to do with anything special that only the registry would be able to do. It’s just a sales pitch, and lots of people are going to buy it. I guess the registry has one advantage over it that they can offer this for people that don’t know how to do it themself lives without the registry having to host your domain/change DNS (they are already DNS). This will discourage the use of DNS caching however which will put an increased strain on IANA’s DNS servers.
Won’t this create confusion where visitors may think ‘#’ is interchangeable with ‘/’?
Just got hashlinking.com
I got hashlinking.com to protect our domain investments so that the monopoly verisign doesn’t create its own rules and add up additional costs on our domains to use hashlinks that have been in use already way before verisign decided to use them.
@RK –
Sony promotes its movies with Sony.com/??????
Not exactly a huge success but it workls
– same with hash linking or whatever – it is just another hack with limited results.
I think Jp might agree
This is awesome!
In a few years we’ll be able to go to
hxxz://www.mysite.greenhome#goldstar
I can’t wait for the “http” and “https” to be expanded next to include vanity protocols like “hjkl://” and the most anticipated… “hxxz://”. The Internet is becoming so much easier to use everyday!
If you want to contact me, send me an email at
web:.//#/me@http://url#shortner?right
I now get it!
As all of the other commenters have said. I have a confuse as to why we would want this.
“Anything with a forward slash requires IT help and additional programming, or at least someone tech-savvy. That all changes with Verisign Domain Hashlink. …”
Oh Really? Installing a special Javascript code on your page will be easier? WTF?
Complete rubbish. What this really is: Verislime’s covert method of extracting data from within websites as well as from the Registry calls…. and they’ll make you PAY for that luxury!
Did the IETF sign off on this?
Was the IETF even consulted?
http://www.ietf.org/about/standards-process.html
All those running new URL shorteners are guilty of concealing their true purpose:
“Use our handy url shortener.” == “Send all your HTTP requests through our servers, where we will log them all.”
“We might sell the data, after we use it ourselves.”
But is there any disclosure of this? Not that I’ve seen.
Yet another way to collect data on users.
just another reason to bypass direct navigation and use google for everything
Clearly they have too much time on their hands, and money to burn on completely redundant useless and irrelevent projects. Hashlinks , seriously???
Down with the forward slash that almost everyone knows, lets try and be all cool and use hash. Whatevs.
@Verisign.com#idiotdepartment – stop fucking around and keep a lid on costs. thanks.
Has it been april 1st already? My, my, how time flies….
Why would industry pundits report this “news” and promote this “service” when we all know that there is nothing new or news-worthy here? What do you get out of this, Mikey?
hi thanks
v’d like to operate a url//mail forwarding service on our dn
please teach us how , thank u
best , 2w
verisign.com#ROFLMAO
Aprils fool, just a wee bit early
Well, HTML5 is changing the way on-page anchors work. The pound symbol (#) to target on-page links doesn’t work the same way with the evolving standards as did the old target links. Coupled with CSS, the hashtag actually can direct a visitor to a part of the page adjacent to the target, unless you’re really careful to set margins and padding correctly, as well as properly place a named anchor tag.
Now, as for the purpose of the hashtag, itself, that’s an evolving search standard that has, heretofore, been isolated to specific websites, notably Twitter. However, I would suggest that anything that makes search easier in the short term will also clutter results in the long term, as more sites embrace the hashtag symbol.
For me, the verdict is out. I don’t find any benefit to using it, in any way, at least not yet. I much prefer setting files in a directory or grouping them, because search results become more organized without necessarily having to submit site maps to Google or (*ahem*) Yahoo. Frankly, I always found site maps to be a bit tedious.
This new effort to set a trend may become tedious and – eventually – pointless.
I propose a new url shortening service called Asterismlink using the asterism symbol ( ⁂ ). It will be marketed at half the advertised cost
of the verisign product. Please don’t rush out and score Asterismlink.com before I get back to my computer tonight, I’ll be pissed. Asterismlink.com⁂ ultrafabulouslinkshortenerforless
Ann
I’m waiting for my big check from Verisign to come or maybe they will reduce the rate of .com’s just for me.
#idiot
http://www.verisign.com#FAIL
No need to rehash the other comments.
The only way this makes any sense is if they announced it last Sunday and that this was, in fact, Verisign’s April Fool’s jape.
@ Rk
“I got hashlinking.com to protect our domain investments so that the monopoly verisign doesn’t create its own rules and add up additional costs on our domains to use hashlinks that have been in use already way before verisign decided to use them.”
You’ve already given Verisign a reason to show a registration of Bad Faith. Was that your intention?!?
One thing’s clear. They should stop having interns write their marketing copy.