This was done before that with HTTP 302.

sjs382 · on Aug 17, 2009

rev="canonical" doesn't compare to HTTP 302. HTTP 302 doesn't allow a user to discover a shortened url provided by the publisher. It's just a temporary redirect.

bradgessler · on Aug 17, 2009

Who cares if its a short URL or not? An URL is an URL. If you want to "discover" what is behind a link, do something like

  $ curl -I http://faux.com/XiSk
  HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
  Server: nginx/0.6.35
  Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:47:11 GMT
  Content-Type: text/html
  Transfer-Encoding: chunked
  Connection: keep-alive
  Location: http://www.faux.com/the/realz/resource

And HTTP 302 is more than just a redirect. 302 says, "Hey, the resource is over here, but check back with me next time before you request that same resource because it might change" whereas a HTTP 301 says, "Don't worry about checking back here next time you want the resource, its really over there".

Maybe URL shortners should be throwing 301's around instead of all of this rel nonsense.

simonw · on Aug 17, 2009

I think you're missing the purpose of this thing. rel=-hortlink / rev=canonical answer the following question:

"I'm on a page with a really long URL. Is there a preferred shorter URL for this page?"

In the context of URL shorteners, 302 redirects usually take you from a short URL to a longer one. rel=shortlink is about discovering the preferred short URL when all you have is the long URL.