Safe.mn

Vesion 26: mobile

2011-03-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

We've released a beta version of the website for mobiles. This is still experimental. Mobile users represent about 10% of our user base.

Version 25: QR codes

2011-03-10T21:28:00.000-08:00

We've added QR codes to all links shortened with safe.mn, clic.gs, clicks.fr and 888.hn. You'll see them on information pages (http://safe.mn/1/i), warning pages (http://safe.mn/3) or by adding /q to a short link (http://safe.mn/100/q).

The QR codes are also available through the API.

Finally, we made it easy to add QR code to any page automatically.

Discussion: affiliate links to cover our costs

2010-09-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

I am very happy that safe.mn is getting more and more popular by the day. We recently switched to a more powerful dedicated server to ensure better reliability, and better speed. We also increased the number of tests we do on each short link to protect users better. Finally, we purchase additional storage for better backup.

We are currently looking at adding commercial tools for even better security. We would also like to add a second server in a different location for full redundancy.

Of course, all of this has the cost. We are looking at different ways to cover our expenses. One way we're trying is Google Adsense. But the revenues are low, and unpredictable.

We would like to try a different way to pay for the hosting services: affiliate links. The idea is to modify some links, like Amazon URLs, to include our affiliate ID. The links would still redirect to the same page, but we would get a percentage of the sales done by users. But we would not modify existing affiliate links: if you shorten an Amazon affiliate link, we would not modify it.

Would it be acceptable to you and your users? We'd like to open the discussion before we take any action. Please leave comments on this post.

Version 24 - Alternate domains clic.gs & go2.gs

2010-08-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

You can now use 4 domains for your secured short links: safe.mn, cliks.fr, clic.gs and go2.gs. You can switch between the domains at any time: http://safe.mn/1 and http://clic.gs/1 point to the same final link.

Choose an alternate domain

We have also improved our statistics. You can see a map of the visitors by country.

Visualize where visitors come from

We improved our French translation as well.

Version 23 - en français / in French + clicks.fr

2010-08-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Safe.mn has been translated into French (well, most of it). We'll keep working on the translation in the coming weeks.

We've also added a new domain: cliks.fr It is the safe as Safe.mn, but with a more user-friendly name. We're going to add a few other domain aliases to Safe.mn, stay tune!

Version 23 - Custom screenshot system

2010-08-04T19:24:00.000-07:00

Improvements

we rolled out our own screenshot manager. It is more reliable, and faster than the API we were using. Most of the broken screenshots have been replaced
show a notification when a URL is copied to the clipboard
works without Javascript or Flash
improve compatibility with Opera and Chrome

Bug fixes

improve URL matching: discard characters that could be appended to the URL in a tweet

Version 22 - Enhanced statistics

2010-07-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Improvements

new hosting provider: faster & more reliable
better display of statistics

New statistics about short links

We are again working on Safe.mn. In the following weeks, we will polish and extend the existing features, as well as add new functionalities based on existing feedback.

We've just moved to a new hosting provider. The move was done with a few seconds down time only. The new platform is faster and more reliable.

Version 21

2009-10-01T19:59:00.001-07:00

Bug fixes

Fix URL validation
improve URL categorization

Version 20

2009-07-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

Improvements

optimize all images
optimize back-end to perform all security checks faster
extensive monitoring to prevent any down time

Version 19

2009-07-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

Improvements

simplify the front page
screen shots are now provided by thumbalizr.com
refresh the FAQ

Vesion 18

2009-06-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

New features/Improvements

change the frontpage image to avoid confusions
you can enter a partial URL: www.google.com instead of http://www.google.com/
you can lookup a short link by its code (1r) instead of the full URL (http://safe.mn/1r/)
FAQ: add the section Why do I and my visitors need secure short links?

Version 17

2009-06-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

New features

display a warning if a URL result in more than 5 redirections., This very likely a spam.

Bug fixes

enable cookies to avoid a redirection loop with some websites

Version 16

2009-06-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

New features

display statistics about domain and country referrers

Version 15

2009-06-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

New features

added a Python library to shorten and expand URLs

Bug fixes

do not shorten Safe.mn short links!

Version 14

2009-06-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Bug fixes

make the Copy button work with Flash 10 (Thanks to Richard)
use a + (plus) instead of . (dot) in short URLs. Existing short links with a . still work.
fix daily dump of all short links

Version 13

2009-06-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

New features

warn about links to a local or private IP address

Bug fixes

allow URLs including an IP address to be shortened

Version 12

2009-06-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

New features

since the list of categories is updated daily, all URLs are checked again daily

Version 11

2009-06-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

New features

release the data under the Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License (less restrictive than the previous CC license)

Version 10

2009-06-09T22:16:00.001-07:00

New features

Add monitoring script to ensure a high quality of service

Bug fixes

remove sources that misqualified some domains such as youtube.com and blogspot.com. All wrong classifications have been fixed

Version 9

2009-06-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

New features

script to add a short Safe.mn link on each page of your website

Version 8

2009-06-05T23:54:00.001-07:00

New features/Improvements

speed up the detection of the URL category
add more sources to detect malicious sites
detect spam URLs

Version 8

2009-06-05T19:52:00.001-07:00

New features

expand the list of dangerous file types

Version 7

2009-06-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

New features

2 PHP libraries
Press information

Version 6

2009-06-03T20:35:00.001-07:00

Bug fixes

fix race condition that resulted in mis-categorization. All existing URLs have been correctly re-classified

Version 5

2009-05-30T21:16:00.001-07:00

Bug fixes

ensure the list of categories is updated daily
Output strict JSON and JSONP

Version 4

2009-05-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

New features

rewrite CSS from scratch
use syntax highlighting when displaying code

Version 3

2009-05-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

New features

create a monthly and yearly Zip archive of the URLs
get URL information by appending /i: http://safe/1/i
remove content from the front page (thanks for the feedback)

Version 2 - Official launch

2009-05-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

New features

add uservoice forum to engage with users
add "Is it unsafe to release publicly the list of shortened URLs?" to the FAQ
add a smaller iframe widget

Bug fixes

correct text throughout the site (spelling mistakes, grammar, etc.)
fix dangerous ActiveX check
fix the iGoogle widget for smaller resolutions

Version 1 - Pre-Launch

2009-05-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

all security features are enabled
very basic URL statistics
API to shorten and expand URLs only
partial FAQ