I think URL shorteners are cool, and all the rage, but:
- I remember when del.icio.us/ came out. Not that it's a shortener, but they all have this clever naming crap. When you're not able to click the link, it's awfully hard to remember-- okay, did the first period come after the first three letters? What's the bottom domain, again? How do you even spell delicious? Did they spell it right?
- There's an implicit trust that must be made before expecting a user to click on any shortened URL. Since you can't follow it through to the content without actually clicking on it, there's no way of knowing whether you're headed to a clever browser hijack (or worse)!
- Which brings us to the work-safe barrier that most everyone who works a real job has. Websense, in most cases, blocks anything that's streaming media, TV, porn, advertisements, gambling, etc. etc. etc. And then it logs it, and it logs which user accesses it. When I'm at work, I'm pretty judicious-- I don't want to be recorded as clicking on YouTube links, or listening to Kanye West's latest gaffe, let alone going to Facebook or Myspace. URL shortners completely obfuscate where the link is taking you-- so the damage is done without you even knowing what choice you make. Therefore, unless I'm absolutely certain it came from someone I know, and it's specified what it is, I'm not clicking that shit. Which brings us back to implicit trust.
Most people don't check the links first, or even do this 'trust check' before they click on links. How long until we see, "Woman fired for watching Jack Johnson video on company time?" (accidentally, of course). It shouldn't be that way, but it will be before too long.