/remove-utm-source-from-url

Remove extra utm/source information from url

Primary LanguageHTML

A simple url shortening tool to remove utm source from a redirected url

Context:

I subscribed to a lot of email newsletters, and if you also do, you probably notice that the url included in the newsletters often involves source information of which Newsletter the url comes from.

Example:

https://eater.net/?utm_source=DailyDrip+Homepage+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5a77874d7b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1e4a41c1c6-5a77874d7b-162314749

This is the url that I got redirected to when clicking from an issue of the DailyDrip Newsletter, where actually the true url is only https://eater.net

The rationale behind shortening the url is purely for Pocket to more easily recognise an article.

How it works:

  • the extension when clicked would get the url of the current tab
  • check if the url can be shorted based solely on checking if it contains "?utm" or in some rare case "?ref="
  • if the url can be shorted, it would refresh the page to the shorted url
  • if the url cannot be shorted, a message would appear below the extension icon indicating so

How to use it:

  • git clone the repo
  • load the repo directory as "unpacked extension", learn How?
  • on an article page, click on the extension icon
  • enjoy the clean url!

Improvements needed:

  • a better way to recognize source pattern instead of hardcoding (unfortunately not very consistent patterns found as of now)