How TinyURL changed my browsing experience
November 10, 2008 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Computers
Apart from the obvious use of TinyURL – which is to shorten links to make them more accommodating for microblogs, it’s other use is to mask pre-conceived notions that readers have established had they known the link source in the first place. The case example would be how it’s used in YouTube to hide a rick roll. But a more reflective use would be to incite curiosity for readers to click on the link since we don’t see the source URL on the status bar at the bottom of our browser.
Are you one of those persons…..
If you’re like me, I don’t click on links on blogs until I see the source URL at the bottom of my browser. Call it force of habit. Seeing the URL gives me preconceived notions about the site I’ll be led to (”Oh it’s another Engadget thing, or a Huffington Post story”). More often that not, the click through is defined by the post title below. If it’s a generic link to the blog’s main page, I don’t click.
TunyURL changes that. It adds a can of mystery over the browsing experience and increases the number of clicks I make to links. I’m no LOLcat, but it sure made me curious.
TinyURL may also mask sites that you’d NEVER go to: porn sites, sites with trojan viruses, etc.
It all basically falls into trust. For example, Youtube’s sxephil places tinyurl links to the stories/news he’s vlogging about.
agreed! is there still a way to guard against it in case you clicked?
(open dns?)
Accidental TinyURL clicking? If you think that the site you’re going to is a site full of Caucasian blondes coming from Quezon City who want to meet with you NOW, then I suggest you close down the tab/window immediately.
Besides that, I’m pretty much clueless. LOLZ!
The other thing you can do is create a subdomain of your own domain and then cname it to xr.com
Then at http://www.xr.com, you put your subdomain as a replacement for xr.com and then you’ve got your own tiny url service, but running on your own domain. So, people trust your link since it’s running on your domain and they’re more likely to click on the link.
TinyURL is a perfect way to spread spam. On the other hand, it is also a perfect guise to opening porn accidentally.