Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 66 posts

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#41

Post by [deleted] »

leephillips wrote: post #40
petercooper wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sibling replies are mostly a load of bollocks. E-mail based publishers track clicks anyway through much better means, such as Mailchimp's click tracking - no reputable sender needs to use bit.ly to track stuff. The reason bit.ly links can end up in mails is if third parties want to track clicks separate from the sender and the sender isn't smart enough to catch it. For example, people who want to include a job li…

Above you said that you didn't sent spam because your recipients opted in. OK. Now you say that these email newsletters contain third-party advertising. You're sending paid advertising in an email. I would consider that to be spam, even if I opted in to your newsletter. I accept the fact that not everyone would define it that way, but I hope you see my point.

[deleted]

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#42

Post by elwell »

Aoyagi wrote: post #39

http://unshort.me/ Never fear.Also could you do some enlightening of others? Some people use URL shorteners by default when they are absolutely unnecessary. Not to mention privacy policy of these services is often uncomfortable at best.

But what if we're dealing with a bitly within a bitly? A 'bitly-ception'? It's bitly's all the way down... Does unshort.me recursively check? (Oh, and what if the bitly goes to an unmarked, safe-looking site with a js redirect or etc.?)

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#43

Post by Aoyagi »

elwell wrote: post #42
Aoyagi wrote: post #39

http://unshort.me/ Never fear.Also could you do some enlightening of others? Some people use URL shorteners by default when they are absolutely unnecessary. Not to mention privacy policy of these services is often uncomfortable at best.

But what if we're dealing with a bitly within a bitly? A 'bitly-ception'? It's bitly's all the way down... Does unshort.me recursively check? (Oh, and what if the bitly goes to an unmarked, safe-looking site with a js redirect or etc.?)

I believe unshort.me "unshorts" it all the way. I have no tested it as I'm a lazy useless individual, but feel free to try it out.

Edit: OK, I just did a quick test, "unshorting" t.co link that hides a bit.ly link gives the final link.

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#44

Post by dsl »

anoncow wrote: post #16
ChrisGranger wrote: post #12

Any URL shortening site that doesn't have an active block list is likely linking to some unsafe sites. Singling out bit.ly in this instance is frankly unfair. Guess who else Google warns is linking to unsafe sites: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=google.c...

Can somebody explain the part where it says "google.com has infected plus.google.com" and other websites in your link?

Someone with a Google Plus account embedded content (likely a block of JavaScript, iframe, or Flash object) from a bit.ly URL. That content was in turn deemed malicious.

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#45

Post by frostmatthew »

petercooper wrote: post #36
tux3 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're sending spam, it's only appropriate that it goes in the spam folder. It seems to me that google is doing a good job, here.

If someone's sending spam, sure. I didn't say a single thing about sending spam, however. I send mail to 200,000 subscribers who double opted in and want to receive the mail :-)

> I send mail to 200,000 subscribers who double opted in and want to receive the mail

Google has no way of knowing that.

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#48

Post by patio11 »

frostmatthew wrote: post #45
petercooper wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone's sending spam, sure. I didn't say a single thing about sending spam, however. I send mail to 200,000 subscribers who double opted in and want to receive the mail :-)

> I send mail to 200,000 subscribers who double opted in and want to receive the mail Google has no way of knowing that.

They do. It is called IP reputation, and is the main reason your inbox is mostly spam-free: Google (and all the other large mail providers) keep reputation scores for IPs / IP blocks, based on what volume of ham/spam they send, and for the larger commercial senders they outsource anti-spam management by saying "Hey MSA: here are the minimum requirements for email getting relayed to Google customers. Ensure your customers respect them, or we'll end you. Toodles!"

Re: Google Warns: bit.ly Links Are Unsafe

#49

Post by kefs »

if you're curious about following a bit.ly link, simply append a + to the end of the url and you'll be taken to that link's statistics page, which will also display the full link you're being forwarded to. a lot of other shorteners employ the same feature.

but obviously, just use an unshortener extension for peace of mind.

Post reply on HN