joshua's blog: on url shorteners
http://joshua.schachter.org/2009/04/on-url-shorteners.html

Interesting opinion piece on the hazards of link shortening services - inserts an unreliable middleman in the standard web transaction.

All good points in here.

"We need to prepare for the day when N of the URL shorteners go out of business. When that happens a large part of the web will die. It will not be a good day." - Scripting News http://www.scripting.com/stories/2009/04/03/joshIsRightUrlShortenersAr.html

Why URL shorterners are bad for the Internet.

RT @phaoloo: http://tinyurl.com/cem5b7 <- my dickens URL http://tinyurl.com/dl2xgj [from http://twitter.com/mfubib/statuses/1667802314]

"RevCanonical is url shortening with a twist. Instead of creating its own super short versions of links, it checks to see if the link owner has published a shortened version of the given page using HTML link element. If not, we just return the original URL. And you should bug the link owner about providing a better alternative."

"url shortening with a twist. Instead of creating its own super short versions of links, it checks to see if the link owner has published a shortened version of the given page using HTML link element. If not, we just return the original URL. And you should bug the link owner about providing a better alternative."

A URL-shortening bookmarklet that looks for a canonical shortened URL (for example, a http://flic.kr link for a Flickr photo, or a gsfn.us link for Get Satisfaction) and returns it, instead of using a third-party service.

RevCanonical is url shortening with a twist. Instead of creating its own super short versions of links, it checks to see if the link owner has published a shortened version of the given page using HTML link element. If not, we just return the original URL. And you should bug the link owner about providing a better alternative.