

A demonstration that bit.ly is not here to help you - bensummers
http://www.crypticide.com/dropsafe/article/3819

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notauser
To summarize:

bit.ly shouldn't attempt to shorten links that are shorter than the URL it
will generate.

However in this case the error is actually in Tweet Deck. The bit.ly API can't
reject short(er) urls sent to it in case you really do just want to wrap an
existing short link in analytics - systems trying to read your mind and
_getting it wrong with no way to correct it_ are amazingly annoying.

So, the bit.ly API working as intended. I can't even believe that the Tweet
Deck bug is malicious as URLs that are shorter than a bit.ly link are rare,
and certainly not common enough to be worth complicating the UI for. There's
already an 'undo shortening' button after all.

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FooBarWidget
So he takes an URL shorter than the minimum bit.ly length, and uses that as
evidence that URL shorteners suck? That's like saying cars and airplanes suck
because they won't save you any time if you want go from your bedroom to your
toilet.

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jmm
Exactly. This is a non issue (non article). Who even cares? I bet a survey of
Tweetdeck or Bitly would reveal that 99.something% are actually shortened and
not just modified. And you have the option not to shorten URLs in Tweetdeck
anyway...

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jrockway
I hope nobody tells this guy what all that javascript being loaded from
google-analytics.com is...

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philk
NoScript is a wonderful thing.

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pclark
I think this is just sloppy coding on TweetDecks part.

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moron4hire
"shorteners are now a fact of life"

The only time I ever use URL shorteners is when I'm trying to Rick-Roll
someone.

Seriously, what is the use case on these things?

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Monkeyget
Passing an URL through a phone/piece of paper.

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notauser
I'd prefer to say example.com/a_nice_long_link rather than example.com/qQqueF
especially when a single typo in the latter could take the recipient to a
random site on the Internet rather than a 404 & search page.

~~~
ryanpetrich
Site-specific url shortening could solve this perhaps? example:
<http://arst.ch/ebg>

