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@devongovett
Created August 28, 2011 15:30
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@auroranockert
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I prefer the real URL, #1

  1. Showing the real URL is important for the user, for 'security' reasons etc.
  2. I care more about the domain than the path.
  3. Being short is irrelevant for mum printing flyers, being typeable and obvious where it goes is relevant.
  4. One URL per resource please, most people don't A/B test their links.

How often do you ignore links because they use an URL shortener? I know I do, all the time, I simply assume that people using them on anything but twitter are hiding something, play with open cards if you want people to click. You cannot really provide both the shortened URL and the actual URL, since they can diverge after you present it, or due to more malicious issues, like someone presenting a link to hacker news to the client, and on the actual click provide goatse.cx, not very nice.

The domain is much more important than the path, it is verified to some extent, I know youtube is youtube, anyone can fake anything in the path without any technical knowledge.

Mum printing flyers might want a short url, but bit.ly/98af79 is not as typeable as mums-cookies.com/special-deal, even though it is much shorter. People might even remember it! Use nice URLs to begin with, don't try to get them via a shortener.

If you are A/B testing links to some third party, you are probably caring a bit too much about something that hardly matters. Try to improve your own pages instead of your links to someone elses.

@nddrylliog
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nddrylliog commented Aug 29, 2011 via email

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