
Making Your Own URL Shortener - CarrotCodes
https://blog.skywelch.io/2017/05/making-your-own-url-shortener/
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smt88
Don't use or create a URL shortener. They are only ever useful to spammers,
they're a security risk, and they break the web[1].

1\. [https://t37.net/why-link-shorteners-harm-your-readers-and-
de...](https://t37.net/why-link-shorteners-harm-your-readers-and-destroy-the-
web.html)

~~~
CarrotCodes
I'm inclined to agree that the use of large URL shorteners obfuscates things
too much and can contribute to spam.

However, this is a personal domain for my use only. And I don't think you can
simply dismiss the usefulness of being able to track link usage and referrers
_without_ using nasty client-side JS stuff.

I'm also using "shortcodes" rather than random IDs for most stuff so the
intent isn't lost.

~~~
takno
The only thing that really bothers me personally about shorteners is not
knowing where I'm going to end up, and not being able to identify articles
I've read before. A shortener with a dedicated domain and user-chosen ids
should cover that just fine. The only outstanding issue in the article is a
single extra DNS lookup, which is pretty minor compared to the massive chains
which were causing the problem.

~~~
smt88
There's an additional security issue when a URL shortener is abandoned and
malware groups pick up the domain.

~~~
takno
If the shortener is tied to a site than why is that risk any greater than the
risk of the site itself being abandoned?

