URL forwards in a frame

October 5, 2009 10:17 AM

Is there a domain shortener like TinyURL that forwards, but keeps the http://tinyurl.com/whatever part stay in the address bar?

I need to send links to sites that are stored at MyCompany.com/whatever and not have it say MyCompany.com. I used to use Good.to or Goin.to for this, but they are going under soon.

posted by andrewzipp to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Is there a reason you couldn't purchase a new domain and do this yourself? Mod_rewrite can take care of it.
posted by odinsdream at 10:20 AM on October 5

Yea, it's for clients that don't want me buying a domain name with their company name in it. And they don't want my company name either.
posted by andrewzipp at 10:33 AM on October 5

Owly does this.
posted by mkb at 10:48 AM on October 5

Owly shows the original URL in the title of the browser.

Any solution without a real web-browser serving the content is going to be easily broken. If it's essential for your client that the "real" URL not be apparent, third-party redirection isn't going to be a great idea.
posted by odinsdream at 10:51 AM on October 5

Owly is close, but it adds a toolbar across the top of the page.
posted by andrewzipp at 10:51 AM on October 5

Yea, it's for clients that don't want me buying a domain name with their company name in it. And they don't want my company name either.

You could buy a dummy domain just for this, though: the cost to the client would be negligible, and it would avoid the "what if the forwarder goes out of business" issue.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:58 AM on October 5

It looks like www.shorturl.com will do masked forwarding.
posted by andrewzipp at 11:07 AM on October 5

theurl.cc seems to work for me. http://theurl.cc/r/ym993m

Ditto what Sid says, though -- if you're doing this for commercial purposes, I'd recommend keeping it in house. Register a new, generic sounding domain name and handle it yourself.
posted by reptile at 11:18 AM on October 5

The search term you're looking for is "cloaking" or "masking". Google should come up with plenty of alternatives.

However, URL forwarding services aren't often renowned for their longevity so it's worth getting a domain to do it yourself.
posted by turkeyphant at 12:28 PM on October 5