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

2 points by laxk ↗ HN
... and what do you like?

4 comments

[ 7.8 ms ] story [ 18.4 ms ] thread
I dislike that I don't know what I'm about to be redirected to.
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.

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