It's not uncommon to notice disparities between the destination URL displayed on your Shortenworld Links page and the original URL you initially shortened. This can be attributed to two potential factors. In both scenarios, rest assured that despite any subtle dissimilarities, the underlying links remain consistent.
Normalization of URLs and the Impact of Percent Encoding
The concept of percent encoding refers to the process whereby characters within a URL undergo transformation into a compact three-character sequence that starts with a percent symbol. Often, this transformation is observed with punctuation marks. For instance, an exclamation point (!) within a URL might be substituted with %21.
When you opt to shorten a URL that employs percent encoding, Shortenworld undertakes the task of normalizing the URL. Despite the visual disparities, it's important to note that they represent the same hyperlink.
To delve deeper into this topic, feel free to explore the information provided in the article "What is percent encoding and how does Shortenworld normalize URLs?"
Streamlining URLs for Simplicity
In addition to URL normalization, the Shortenworld system further simplifies URLs as needed. For instance, if a URL such as http://shortenworld.com//example contains an extraneous forward slash (/), our system streamlines it to http://shortenworld.com/example.