Short links are for those of us who don’t like much typing or thumbing. Great invention, huh?
I mean, who really wants to take the time to type in a link like this — http://wildeherb.com/2014/08/21/blooming-anise-hyssop-attracts-bees-and-butterflies/ — with all the hyphens no less?
Short link services are plentiful on the Net and it’s no wonder. If you’re into Twitter, a link like the above one will use more than half a tweet with those 77 characters!
A more sensible link — http://bit.ly/29fpAhq — of only 14 characters will take you to that Blooming Anise Hyssop post.
Popular URL shortening services are available at bitly.com, TinyURL.com or Goo.gl, just to name the most popular ones. There are tons of other services out there with extra features like tracking how many clicks your links are getting.
My issue with using short links is, “How do you know where that little link will take you?”
Is it safe? Can it be trusted?
Find out before you go there by using an un-shortening or link expansion service like Untiny.
I just checked and my bit.ly link above was properly extracted to the original long, hairy link.
Untiny.me, an even greater invention!