Stop Shortening Your URLs

Hi there!

As great as shortened URLs may be, it still poses some disadvantages that should be considered. Before you get started with the process of shortening all of your URLs, you must be aware of the disadvantages of short URL.

What are some concerns that shortening URLs may have?

One of the major reasons for URLs to be shortened is that it raises some serious privacy concerns. Due to the shortening URL’s, they are extremely vulnerable to the people who click on these links.

The links can have malicious intent by being vulnerable to brute-force scanning. This means that hackers or attackers can read through multiple shortened URLs to figure out which links can be shared effectively.

What happens if your information is on the cloud?

In case you are services-linked to the cloud, this would lead to a breach of the sensitivity issues and enables people to send maliciously filled content which can be copied into the devices of the owner. This can cause a lot more risk for the account owner and the devices that he possesses.

By injecting malicious content into accounts, hackers can breakthrough, enter and unlock accounts through which they can proceed to steal information quickly.

Short URLs can also be confusing as the domain which is shortened may lead to different domains. Some of the different medical facilities which are different but can cause confusion are:

  1. Mental health clinics
  2. Addiction treatment clinics
  3. Prisons
  4. Detention centres
  5. Addiction treatment clinics
  6. Places of worship

All this information, when fallen in the wrong hands can lead to a breach of privacy.

How has Google and Microsoft taken appropriate measures?

Google has taken certain measures by lengthening URLs and also adopted a measure of blocking automated scanning. Microsoft, on the other hand, does not allow OneDrive users to share files using shortened URL’s.

The data that is exposed is vulnerable in nature and the previously shared links are still the same. The fear of having privately shortened URLs becoming public is one of the major fears that people may have.

Why most people won’t click on short links?

Most people shorten links as they are obsessed with links with the help of analytics. Hackers and scammers also use long-shortened URLs to obscure a target website and lures users into scammy or spammy pages through which information can be stolen.

Short URLs can also use keyloggers to log into the target’s IP address, even if the user is not logging into the website. Hence, most users are wary of the short links that they click.

People who click on such clicks may feel cheated on:

As users who do not know whether your links are malicious, the readers may end up on a website that they may not be interested in. Readers can feel cheated on when they get redirected to another website with a shorter URL.

You could have less control over the URL with a shortening service:

In some cases, legitimate URL shorteners are reported as spam by leading URL shortener sites to disable them. Some shortening services also work temporarily or permanently.

With a recent update on Twitter, the social networking site no longer takes more characters than shorter ones. You can also use Twitter’s analytics tool, to see the different metrics to measure how well your tweets are doing.

In conclusion, these are some of the major reasons for not using URL shorteners. It is important to make the correct decision while working with a shortening service.

You can use our trim URL service to shorten the links of your choice. We wish you the best of luck in the future!