Got a tech question? E-mail Tamara Chuang at Please put “Mailbag” in the subject and include your name and city. can be downloaded for free in its free version, and its main task is to detect and remove corrupt files, suspicious or spyware robots, which can be harmful to our computer. If you were one of those readers who had trouble getting to the right site, try it again now that you know about URL shorteners and tell me how it went. Remember last week’s Mailbag on free antivirus software from Comcast? The link I provided - /1vU6TWS - was used at least 172 times. It also lets creators track how many times a link is clicked. That last one I custom-made for you, dear reader, on bit.ly, which in addition to link shortening also lets you remove the gibberish and add a more sensible, custom link. There is still some gibberish in the link - plus a few capital letters - but it’s much simpler.Įven easier, try this: bit.ly/letter2momo One mistype and you’ll end up on an error page.īut shorteners are still useful for sharing long links.Īnother example: I watched a kid-friendly Anime movie called “Letter to Momo,” which just became available free on Amazon Prime.
Shorteners also may include upper- and lower-case letters. You need to trust the source that is sharing the link. On the down side, shorteners can be used to disguise malicious sites. Ironically, Twitter now shortens links automatically so you don’t need bit.ly. Shorteners like bit.ly surged in the past decade because of sites like Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters. Shorteners are just shortcuts to help people get to the right place faster. Mailbag: What’s dpo.st, bit.ly and other gibberish? Don’t search, just type! – The Denver Post