There has always been the knowledge that short URL generators (like what Twitter uses, TinyURL) were bad for the web because of a phenomenon known as “link rot“. If these website go out of business or shut down then every website address dependent on their service ceases to exist.

Well recently that threat became bigger than ever. One of those websites was hacked. As the Consumerist said, “with a little work, millions of links can be redirected to phishing or spam sites.”

Twitter needs to develop its own system of handling shorter URLs in 140 character-restricted tweets. Using third party micro-URL generators is a terrible idea.

Please avoid using these services where at all possible. Using these services contributes to a bad internet for our future.

From Consumerist: Tweet URLs may be tiny, but they can also be dangerous

Gregory The Web Twitter