A system, method and computer program product for providing links to remotely
located
information in a network of remotely connected computers. The system may or may
not include a server providing an interface between shorthand codes and corresponding
original files. If the server is included, a uniform resource locator (URL) is
registered with a server. A shorthand link is associate with the registered URL.
The associated shorthand link and URL are logged in a registry database. When a
request is received for a shorthand link, the registry database is searched for
an associated URL. If the shorthand link is found to be associated with an URL,
the URL is fetched, otherwise an error message is returned. If the server is not
included, all URLs located at a root page may be listed and associated with shorthand
keys or links. Associated files and keys are indexed in an index file. The shorthand
codes or keys are combined with the root page to form shorthand URLs. Requests
are made for the shorthand URLs and the index file is searched for the requested
shorthand URL. If the requested shorthand URL is encountered, the corresponding
file is returned; otherwise, an error message is returned.