The Whirlwind Wrote:
> Please tell us (for the sake of the less savvy):
> what is a "link shortener", ImagoDei?
Link or URL shorteners do just as the name implies: shorten the URL link. This can be useful if a URL is extremely lenghty and ugly. You can condense it down to only a handful of characters. With websites that may have a character limit for your posts, they can be handy if you are posting a lot of links. You can even give the link a custom name.
For example, take this post:
[
www.reddit.com]
If you are on a desktop computer and you hover over the hyperlink titled "The Most Hated of ALL Jesus' Teachings" with your mouse, you will see on the bottom left side of your screen the URL that is being linked. In this case, the URL has been "shortened" and renamed as
bit[DOT]ly/TheMostHatedTeachingOfTheLordJesusChrist (replace [DOT] with a period to make the link work)
This redirects to the following video from A Voice in the Desert:
[
www.youtube.com]
They can also be used to hide the domain you are linking to, so spammers and scammers use them often. By using a URL or link shortener, you don't know what website you are going to until you click the link. They can be used to circumvent domain bans. For example, a subreddit could ban a certain domain and have methods of detecting when a URL from that domain is being posted, and remove it. With a URL shortener, it will bypass the filter.
Some services also provide analytics, such how many people clicked the URL or linK, what country that person was in, what type of device they were using, etc. I know they have used the following two URL shorteners in the past:
bit.ly
vidrise.com
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2020 02:50PM by ImagoDei.