There's something annoying about those TinyURLs -- the target site isn't obvious until you are there. It's not just a curiosity to know where the link will end up, there are some sites web surfers might just like to avoid. For example, see Tweets Link to Identity Theft, in which the author offers a warning about the TinyURLs, to wit:
Unfortunately, a condensed URL that appears harmless can easily lead to a malware download or phishing site, rather than the destination you were expecting. What appears to be a link to a friend’s home video may actually be pointing you toward the Koobface virus. Hackers can target a single URL shortening service and intentionally misroute millions of users.
Further, a TinyURL rival called Cligs was hacked recently. See Hacker cracks TinyURL rival, redirects millions of Twitter users.
Fortunately, there are some Firefox add-ons that can fix that by disclosing the full URL. The one I eventually settled on is Long URL which converts the TinyURL to the long form. Works great, however it doesn't seem to work on Clig shortcuts. I originally experimented with one from the "Experimental" category but decided against that one. The decision was based on an unbiased concern about that "Experimental" label and had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the author's website was in Arabic and strewn with praises for Allah.
Updated 7/15/09: The Long URL add-on quit working yesterday afternoon and doesn't seem to be working today. Don't know whether this is a temporary outage, a bug in the program, or a fatal problem.
George, I wonder if this has something to do with Twitters' move from TinyURL to Bit.ly
Posted by: Jeff | July 14, 2009 at 05:57 PM
Jeff, I really have no idea. Your guess on that is probably better than mine.
Posted by: Geo | July 15, 2009 at 06:25 AM