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-## The Go short link service that all Xooglers must write.
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+# A "go" short-link service
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+
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+## Background
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+The first time I encountered "go" links was at Google. Anyone on the corporate
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+network could register a URL shortcut and it would redirect the user to the
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+appropriate page. So for instance, if you wanted to find out more about BigTable,
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+you simply directed your browser at http://go/bigtable and you would be redirected to
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+something about the BigTable data storage system. I later found out that the
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+first go service at Google was written by Ben Saggins to end the never-ending stream of
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+requests for internal CNAME requests. He described it as AOL keywords for the
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+corporate network. These days if you go to any reasonably sized company, you are
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+likely to find a similar system. Etsy made one after seeing that Twitter had
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+one ... it's a contagious and useful little tool. So contagious, in fact, that
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+many former Googlers that I know have built or contributed to a similar system
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+post-Google. I am no different, this is my "go" link service.
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+
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+On slight difference between this go service and Google's is that this one is also
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+capable of generating short links for you.
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+
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+## Installation
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+This tool is written in Go (ironically) and can be easily installed and started
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+with the following commands.
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+
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+```
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+GOPATH=`pwd` go install github.com/kellegous/go
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+bin/go
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+```
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+
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+By default, the service will put all of its data in the directory `data` and will
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+listen to requests on the port `8067`. Both of these, however, are easily configured
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+using the `--data=/path/to/data` and `--addr=:80` command line flags.
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+
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+## DNS Setup
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+To get the most benefit from the service, you should setup a DNS entry on your
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+local network, `go.corp.mycompany.com`. Make sure that corp.mycompany.com is in
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+the search domains for each user on the network. This is usually easily accomplished
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+by configuring your DHCP server. Now, simply typing "go" into your browser should
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+take you to the service, where you can register shortcuts. Obviously, those
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+shortcuts will also be available by typing "go/shortcut".
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+
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+## Using the Service
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+TODO(knorton): Finish writing this
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