An amusingly titled article, URL Shorteners - the herpes of the web replete with cake wreck image. Given the havoc that goatse wrought on the world I don't click on links that are unclear as to what they are. I can recall when slashdot deliberately placed spaces in URLs so you were forced to read the URL, correct it, and then click return to continue in order to stave off the goatse'ing.

I was surprised when youtube chose a hex based URL to identify their videos. The URL itself is inpenetrable as to its purpose and as a result we got the rick rolling phenonomen. Apple's Safari also fails at this as they do away with the lower title bar and so you have no idea what you are clicking on. The internet is just not that benevolent.

Apparently URL shortening is a result of the micro-blogging services like twitter and their 124 character limit. Personally I think it is an avenue for abuse, spamming and indirection.