a commonly needed server side component: expand tinyurl (et al)

gistfile1.rb

class BigurlsController < ApplicationController
  def index
    url = URI.parse(params[:url])
    res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http| http.get([url.path, url.query].compact.join('?'), "User-Agent" => request.user_agent) }
    render :text => (res['location'] || params[:url])
  rescue
    "#{params[:url]}##{$!.to_s}"
  end
end