Why was this software written?

Well, I thought tinyurl.com was a great idea. I used it quite a bit. But, I could not find the software for it. I see this software being useful for websites (for send this link to a friend), mailing lists (links could be shorten in a message to the list), and for measuring referals for websites. It also can be useful in chat conversations. But I had no code.

In the true Open Source sprirt, I simply stole a great idea!

Why did you use AOLserver?

I used AOLserver because it is a great web server and combined with PostgreSQL it only took me about 8 hours to write, test, and release the software. The server is currently running on moderate hardware and operating perfectly. No other modules needed. No other software was needed to be installed.

Also, I like to look at current useful websites or website functions and develop and AOLserver "clone" for that software, in part to show off the ease of development in AOLserver.

Why do you give you software away?

I'm not "giving it away". I'm sharing the software with others.

Can I use this site in my software?

Yes, your program would have to do two things:

1. call http://myturl.com/add-url.adp?url=[your url] and dump the source for the html that is returned.
2. parse that source html for your myturl between <code>myturl</code>

For example:

cat << EOF > parse-myturl.pl
while(<>) {
  $re = '(http://myturl\.com/.*?)';
  if(/$re/) {
     $found=$1;
  } 
}
EOF

$ lynx -source 'http://myturl.com/add-url.adp?url=http://cy.yp.to/qmail.html' | perl parse-myturl.pl
http://myturl.com/000gO    
$