The latest articles on DEV Community by 胡亚洲 (@huyazhou). https://dev.to/huyazhou https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3870827%2F50473524-b503-42b5-9af0-443edc5245f6.png https://dev.to/huyazhou en 胡亚洲 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:43:25 +0000 https://dev.to/huyazhou/i-built-the-worlds-shortest-url-shortener-heres-how-1okn https://dev.to/huyazhou/i-built-the-worlds-shortest-url-shortener-heres-how-1okn <p>Every URL shortener claims to make links "short." But a Bitly link is 22 characters. TinyURL is 26. That's not short — that's just... shorter.</p> <p>So I built <a href="https://y.hn" rel="noopener noreferrer">y.hn</a>. Every link is 7 characters: y.hn/abc.</p> <h2> Why does length matter? </h2> <ul> <li>SMS: 160 character limit. Every character counts.</li> <li>Twitter/X: Display text matters for readability.</li> <li>QR codes: Shorter URLs = simpler QR patterns = faster scanning.</li> <li>Print: Shorter URLs are easier to type manually.</li> </ul> <h2> The tech stack </h2> <ul> <li>Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router)</li> <li>Database: PostgreSQL 16 with pgvector</li> <li>ORM: Drizzle ORM</li> <li>Auth: NextAuth v5 (Google, Apple, Email)</li> <li>Analytics: Custom-built click tracking (country, city, device, browser, UTM)</li> </ul> <h2> Anti-phishing at scale </h2> <p>URL shorteners are a prime target for phishing. We built a 7-layer detection system:</p> <ol> <li>Keyword blocklist matching</li> <li>Google Safe Browsing API</li> <li>PhishTank database</li> <li>URLhaus malware database</li> <li>VirusTotal (70+ security vendors)</li> <li>AI URL pattern analysis</li> <li>AI page content deep scanning</li> </ol> <p>The AI content scanner uses free LLM models (DeepSeek, Groq, Cerebras, SiliconFlow). Total cost: $0.</p> <h2> Analytics without cookies </h2> <p>We track clicks using hashed IP + user agent for unique visitor counting. No cookies needed. Geographic data comes from Cloudflare headers.</p> <h2> Try it </h2> <p><a href="https://y.hn" rel="noopener noreferrer">y.hn</a> — free, no account required for basic shortening. <a href="https://y.hn/docs" rel="noopener noreferrer">API docs</a> for developers.</p> webdev