Unshorten That URL!

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Back in August 2007, I suggested using TinyURL as a means of shorten a URL, particularly when e-mailing a long URL that might hit a line break.

Unfortunately, some folks apparently enjoy hiding embarrassing and inappropriate web content, such as spam and porn, behind a TinyURL and similar services. Some users won't open them because of bad experiences.

Here are two suggestions:

1) Avoid blind TinyURL clickthroughs by utilizing TinyURL's preview page and enable previews.

2) Use a service such as unshorten.com to get the original URL. This usually works not only with TinyURL.com, but also SnipURL.com, NotLong.com, Metamark.net, and zURL.ws.

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