What don't you like about "tiny url" services (tinyurl.com, bit.ly)?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=687457

by laxk • 17 years ago

2 4 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

... and what do you like?

wdr1• 17 years ago

I dislike that I don't know what I'm about to be redirected to.

christonog• 17 years ago

I agree. I usually mouse-over a link and check where it's being redirected to in the Firefox status bar, but I haven't seen this option for links that have been shortened.

I never really understood it, and would probably click on more links in Twitter and other places if I could see for myself if the shortened link was legit.

chaosprophet• 17 years ago

There's a greasemonkey userscript which automatically expands a lot of shortened URLs. Just search the userscript repository for Tinyurl decoder (it supports a lot of services including tinyurl and bit.ly).

apowell• 17 years ago

I don't like that the permanence of the link relies on the continued existence of a third-party service.

What don't you like about "tiny url" services (tinyurl.com, bit.ly)?

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