Patent attributes
A uniform resource locator (URL) shortener relies on client-side support to embed links to websites into, for example, text messages, emails, tweets, or other forms of microblogging, and that provides additional capabilities. A method may include: recognizing a token indicator; recognizing a token in conjunction with the token indicator; selecting a template corresponding to the token indicator; and executing a process enabled according to the token and the template. Executing an enabled process may include one or more of: generating a URL; generating a URL that is itself a server-based URL shortener, in which the token indicator is substituted for the server-based URL shortener hostname to reduce the character count from that of the server-based URL shortener; displaying information from a destination website of the URL generated from the token and the template; or generating a URL according to a distinctive visual characteristic of the token indicator.
