Good News - Twitter now showcases real urls, shortners vanishing

[BocaVision]

brands and their call-to-action urls will proudly swim in the stream --


Article:
A Nice Side Effect Of The Tweet Button: Real URLs Back In The Stream

snippet:

The link shortening revolution that has taken place the past few years has been interesting for a number of reasons. But one of the most interesting aspects is that we’re all now trained to click on a URL even if we have no idea what it actually is. Sure, you may be visiting TechCrunch.com, but in Twitter’s stream, it has been hidden as bit.ly5jgkdldl or the like. Twitter Tweet Button changes that

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[Sparhawke]

Nice to see finally, I doubt it will be the death of these shorteners but they were seriously annoying.

When I click on a link I like to know exactly where I am going.

 

[smalltime]

I don't mind branded shorteners such as youtu.be because I know that it will be a legitimate youtube link. With no_url_shorteners you could end up anywhere.

I was going to make Dec.al - Decal a shortener. I am glad that I didn't now.

 

[fm1234]

I'm not sure whom they think they're helping. Anyone dumb enough to blindly click on a shortened link is probably deserving of whatever is on the other end, and as the article itself mentions no_url_shorteners has been vetting links for a long time. The number of non-no_url_shorteners shortened URLs that I see on Twitter is so negligible that I can't even think of the last one I saw (aside, ironically, from ones I posted via my own shortener.)

@smalltime: I actually just saw a YouTu.be link for the first time a couple of days ago. One of the people I follow on Twitter posted three seriously tempting-to-click posts along with YouTu.be links back-to-back. I assumed his account had been hacked and that the URL was a malicious spoof, until I went circuitously to see who was behind the domain. YT should better publicise their stuff.


Frank

 

[smalltime]

I'm seeing more and more "domain hacks" used for internal shorteners. NPR (National Public Radio) has started using n.pr

I think shorteners are here to stay they will just be used in a more specific manner.

 

[JB Lions]

Ah, looks like I'm going to need to swith out my TweetMeme links on my site. They give nice stats, from what I've read so far, this doesn't or not as good. Don't see a Wordpress plugin yet for it, guess I could put it in the code, but I'll wait a little.

 

[NetOctave]

It would be easier for twitter to allow longer urls than going for such short cuts...
Maybe restrict the length of title field and hide the url..

 

[rkallit]

Welcome move!:hi:

Twitter should not be automatically convert links to any intermediate sites. End-user should have the ability to examine each link beforehand before clicking it. This is the way the Web should work. Hiding information is poor design practice, and does not promote a security and safety conscious online community.