Kevin Gilbertson is an American web developer best known as the creator of
TinyURL
TinyURL is a URL shortening web service, which provides short aliases for redirection of long URLs. Kevin Gilbertson, a web developer, launched the service in January 2002 as a way to post links in newsgroup postings which frequently had long, ...
launched in January 2002. TinyURL is a
URL shortener
URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter and still direct to the required page. This is achieved by using a redirect which links to the web page that has a ...
, a web service that provides short aliases for redirection of long URLs.
According to ''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
'', Gilbertson had been riding
unicycles since he was a kid, and created TinyURL to convert postings on unicycling
newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinc ...
s into Web pages (since fewer people know their way around newsgroups than the Web). Google's
AdSense
Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advert ...
links covered operating costs.
Gilbertson, known by friends as "Gilby," lives in Mexico with his wife. He learned about computers from his father, a software engineer, with whom he also rides unicycles as part of the Twin Cities Unicycle Club.
[Gonzalez, Tony (2008-07-08)]
"Tiny idea, big wheel"
The Star Tribune.
External links
Kevin Gilbertson's personal website(a link is not reachable as of 12/14/20)
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Web designers
{{US-compu-bio-stub