For those of you that use Amazon.com for purchases, you may recall how obnoxious the URLs are for individual products.  Back in 2002 Google even had to increase the number of URL characters that can be indexed.  For example, below is the URL of a purple 14GB Apple iPod nano (4th generation):

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPod-nano-Purple-Generation/dp/B001FA1NF0/ref=br_lf_m_1000274311_1_2_ttl?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=electronics&pf_rd_p=471618271&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000274311&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1K9D0AM24F1SDP4RPBF7

A lot of this URL is just extra fluff for analytics and inventory purposes, but within that URL is an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN).  In the case of the URL above it is B001FA1NF0.

A developer by the name of Dustin has created a Mozilla Firefox plugin that automatically changes the URL from the big one above to a smaller one and still take you to the same page.   The plugin is called AmazonLinks.  The above URL is converted would be converted to http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B001FA1NF0/

Currently the add-on is experimental so it would require registering with Mozilla’s download directory.

[via CNET]