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John Danenbarger
Shortened URL services have been all over the net, supplied from more and more Internet companies vying for your interest in them. The competition is stiff. I, personally, use bit.ly. Why? Because that is the one I started with since it was one of the early suppliers. Not for any other reason even though I have noticed that bit.ly has be bought out and is supplying simpler usage.
At first, I did not understand why I would want to use this service at all. I didn't care if shortening helped Tweeting. But as I have discovered the space it saves everywhere, it has become something I use more often. It is obvious that it is easier to send "http://bit.ly/amyrCl" to someone than to send the same thing as "http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=34738373&invAcpt=245...." Even if that someone is your mother.
I also found that, if I registered, I could customize the shortened link to actually have a meaning rather than just be a jumble of letters and numbers. So I use shortened URLs more and more.
I just want you to be aware of the other side of the coin. I was reading the McAfee report. I quote:
"Short URL Service Abuse: Short URLs make sense when used in social media as well as in other forms. Short links are easier to paste or type. The trouble, and abuse, follows because users do not know where these shortened links actually lead until they click them. This is a huge opportunity for abuse. Spanners have already latched onto short URLSs to evade traditionl filters. McAfee Labs expects to see short URL abuse invade all other forms of Internet communications. We currently track and analyze, through multiple social media applications and all URL shortining services, more than 3,000 shortened URLs per minute. We see a growing number of these used for spam, scamming, and other malicious purposes. This nominal convenience will have a tremendous impact on the success of cybercriminals and scammers as they leverage the immediacy of social media over email for even greater success."
So does this mean that I, as an Internet Marketing Consultant, should ask prospects to NOT open my shortened URLs? Should I warn people away? I think not.
The answer is, when you see a shortened URL, take into consideration from where it is coming. Be sure it is coming from a reputable source, just as you should with any link. It should not be harder than that.
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