Cleaner links for Facebook—and everywhere else
I’ve made a small change to MB that solves something that has bothered me for a long time.
Until now, sharing one of my blog posts meant copying an address like this:
It worked, but it looked like a computer inventory number. Nobody could tell what the link was about without opening it.
Now the same post can be shared like this:
Or, when displayed normally:
`https://blusup.com/?blog=One More Day`
The title of the post has become part of the address.
### How it works
When someone opens the new link, BluSup sees the `blog=` option and reads the title that follows it.
It then searches the public MB posts for a matching title. When it finds the post, it sends the visitor to the regular MB reader, where the complete post, image, music, and everything else work normally.
The original post address still works, so nothing was removed or replaced. The title link is simply a cleaner front door.
Private posts remain private. Only public MB posts can be found this way. If two public posts happen to have the same title, the newest one is used.
The post page also provides Facebook and other services with the title, description, and featured image information they need to build a link preview—although Facebook sometimes seems to have ideas of its own about images.
### Why I wanted it
I’ve often sent Facebook messages to people telling them about my latest work.
I don’t need to do that anymore.
From now on, I can post the clean link on my Facebook page. Anyone interested in what I’m building, writing, fixing, or thinking about can simply drop by and follow along.
No message campaign. No long explanation. No ugly string of characters.
Just a title people can understand.
This is one of those small improvements that makes the whole system feel better. MB posts now have addresses that look less like database records and more like something written for human beings.
And that is exactly what they are.
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