Why URL Shorteners are bad? Are URL Shorteners really dangerous? Why URL Shorteners Are Bad? Why URL Shortening is considered dangerous? Are shortened url safe? Why URL Shorteners Are Bad? Are shortened links safe? Why URL Shorteners are bad? Are Short Links really dangerous?
Why URL Shorteners Are Bad?
There are mixed views about URL Shorteners and their nature. Some famous bloggers and technical gurus considered URL Shortening bad practice while others believe the other way.
Those who believe Short Links are bad and they are really dangerous gives the following reasons in favor of their argument.
- Short links are vulnerable to brute force attacks and hackers.
- Short links can give access to bad guys to users’ private files and data. Its use therefore can have privacy consequences.
- As the final link is obscure therefore it is possible a short link may take you to a dicey website which could harm your computer software and leak your data.
- Sometimes URL Shortener system changes the final url itself. In such case your visitors may never get to the destination link.
Those who believe URL shorteners are safe to use gives the following reasons in favor of their argument.
- The danger of URL Shortener has been overblown by the critics. Today users are safe with antivirus, URL blacklist and regular browser security updates.
- Research done on Tiny and Bitly short links shows that only 2-3% links may redirect visitors to spammy website. All other links are safe.
- People used mostly monetized Short Links to earn extra money. In such case they shortened and share only those links which they believe are safe, interesting and people would like to visit them.
- It has also been found in research that the use of URL Shortener increases the click ratio of a link and you may get more visitors.
- URL Shortening is another way of monetizing your content.
- Some URL Shorteners show a detail list of traffic that your link receives.
