Question: if you want to quickly create a website from one page, how to do it? You can use a service like Tumblr, or register a domain name, find a host, and much more. But what if you could just take and create a web page and then package it into a link? Whenever someone clicks on a link, the site will unpack itself and display in the browser like a normal page. All this became possible with the Itty Bitty service.
The user can paste the link anywhere, for example, in a Twitter post, or turn it into a QR code and print it. Such a QR code will contain the entire website. Whenever someone scans it, the site will be displayed without even requiring an internet connection.
Itty Bitty Sites
Itty Bitty is a project of Nicholas Zhitkoff, also known by the pseudonym Alcor. Zhitkof is the creator of the Quicksilver app and VP of design at Dropbox. Itty Bitty consists of a web editor that lets you enter whatever you want. This could be a poem, a resume, or a fully encoded image page. After creating the site, you just need to copy the URL from the URL bar in Safari. You can then share the link.
The difference is that the generated site is contained right inside the URL. This is not a regular link that redirects to a site hosted somewhere on the Internet. The created site is completely self-contained.
However, this method of creating sites has certain limitations, in particular, the small page size. Itty Bitty editor minimizes the amount of typed text as much as possible. Twitter has a message size limit of just over 4,000 bytes. A QR code can store a maximum of 2610 bytes. However, this space is sufficient if you use only text.
How to create an Itty Bitty web page
In order to create a website, go to the editor and get started. You can give your page a title and write whatever you want using HTML. More advanced users can use third-party editors such as Codepen.io to create.
The editor has a counter in the upper right corner that reports the page size in bytes. For maximum compatibility, it is best not to exceed 2K bytes.
When you're done editing, just copy the URL from Safari (or any other browser) and paste the URL into a new tab. You can also click the Refresh Page button and the site will load itself (it is contained in its own link). However, this makes it difficult to return to the editor and fix errors.
Complex code
The user is not limited to basic HTML. For example, Itty Bitty has a built-in Calculator application.
Without Internet!
The Itty Bitty website is completely self-contained. The URL may start with itty.bitty.site, but this does not mean that it is downloaded from the Itty Bitty servers. This can be verified by scanning the QR code containing the page. If you turn on airplane mode on your iPhone and then scan the Itty Bitty QR code, it will still download.
This approach is known as Data URL, but Zhitkof emphasizes some of the distinguishing features of his service:
Safety
The obvious disadvantage of the service is security. Using such a site, you can distribute malware using only a QR code. Itty Bitty may end up being a big malware dump, but it may not. At the same time, it is a great way to share small pieces of information.
See also:
- Online photo editor for free: 5 services for fast online photo editing.
- How to download videos from Vkontakte, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Odnoklassniki to your computer: the best free services.
- Shortened links, or how to get a short URL: 10 best services.
