Minor tweak: When clicking the input box, I'd like the ghost text, 'http://', to be removed. Since I've already copied the URL I want to make happy, when I paste it I produce: http://http://urltomakehappy.com, It'd be nice to not have to manually remove that first http://

Or, highlight the first http://, so a paste will overwrite it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm on it.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to amplify your ability to spread happiness.

First, I'm a big fan of your flagship product. I use it on my site and told most of the Upper East Side about the joy Cornify has brought into my life.

Second, can I get some account information - say, analytics when I create an account with happylink?

If I'm going to be spreading happiness, I want to measure it.

Everyone knows that you cannot measure happiness.

Economists do; they like to call it 'utility'

This is why economists are so over-utilised yet never happy.

It's the dismal science for a reason.

Amazing, glad to hear that the upper east side has been cornified thoroughly.

What type of statistics are you looking for? Or better, what type of insights would you like?

There's a meta keywords entry but no content. They're not that important nowadays, but you might as well fill it in.

You could do with a bookmarklet to make generating links easier.

Perhaps you could add a feature to allow URLs to be prefixed by http://hapylink.com/ to then change them into the final link. For example: http://hapylink.com/http://www.foxnews.com/ would return a page with the resulting Hapylink. Diggbar does it like this and makes it so easy to use.

Could you make the resulting links /slightly/ shorter (optionally, perhaps)? I'd like to use this on Twitter but Twitter would shorten (or at least truncate) these URLs again as they're a bit long, I think.

A logo would be cool.

Thanks for the detailed suggestions, those are all good points. An api-type feature, like you are suggesting, is on the way, and the other suggestions are now on the list.

Happiness all the way!

Just posted an update to the site. The API is now available (via http://hapylink.com/hapify.php?link=) and links are also shorter now.

It's a nice idea, but please remove the background image, it makes my eyes bleed. Your main website at http://www.cornify.com/ has a much better design.

I like it, a nice example of how you can run with an idea and get something cool out the other end quickly using today's frameworks etc.

But where are the kittens?

Frameworks? really? how about a list of positive words, string concatenation, a random number generator, and a hashtable to store the URLs and their short versions, possibly with persistence. Common Lisp hashtables are transparently persisted with Rucksack, Prevalence, BKNR, Elephant, cl-store, etc.

So here is my take on it, 10 minutes!

http://paste.lisp.org/display/78367

P.S. how does one post code in HN?

I use 'frameworks' as a handwavy term to encompass 'anything that means you don't need to spend days reinventing the wheel'. If the aforementioned Lisp utilities mean you can do that, then so be it.

(Indent three spaces for code.)

Sorry, didn't mean to jump at it like that. It's just URL-shorteners have been annoying me lately. Just because they're easy to make doesn't mean you should; there is no hack value in them, as nothing new is there to be discovered and no new ground to break; and they have no business value, aside from being, potentially worth BILLIONS as an integral twitter utility for the next generation of enterprise web grids and semantic net appliances ..meh.

It's all good. Please keep in mind that Hapylink is not a url-shortener, but a url-happifier. Like you say, url-shortening is over crowded, so Hapylink focuses on more of a niche audience of users with unhappy links.

Did you miss Cornify on April 1st? Ahhhhh, kittens everywhere. One of them was constantly batting at a floating butterfly. You should be really sad you missed it. This will cheer you up:

http://hapylink.com/supermerrysunnyjollyfunfriend

I am devastated I missed it :( This is the first I've heard of Cornify.

Hilarious. I love it.

I completely agree. I am going to recommend this to everyone who seems sad to me.

Awesome. On Cornify, if you click the button five times, every piece of text gets a very happy modifier. I derive much pleasure from this.

Will Hapylink ever add the same functionality? Because it would probably end war and hunger.

Try pressing 15 times for some extra sparkle.

Finally, a layer of indirection even joshu can feel happy about.

Another link "shortener" service? Don't we have enough of those in all their different shapes and colors?

No thanks.

Most links are actually longer - but they are a lot happier and more like to viewers smile, which is the core focus of Hapylink.

MORE HAPPINESS NEEDED :)

Pretty cool but your target audience - current or former drug users - is going to be a difficult one to monetize.

Have you seen how much drug users are willing to spend on stuff!??

no

"Click here to register for $20. $15 of which goes to the 'legalize marijuana fund!'"

"The first 500 registrants get a free dub sack! But wait...call now, and you'll get two, that's right, two dub sacks! That's a $60 value for two easy payments of $10!"

Cornify is kinda fun... what is the point of Happylink?

more joyfulhappyunicorn fun!!!!!@!!!

I’m always amazed by people who spend time doing this kind of application. I wish I had that spare time.

Plenty of people have enough spare time to do something fun like this. It's called having a hobby.