Bitly Changes: Link-Shortening, Now with Advertising
Bitly, the link-shortening service long used by millions, decides it’s going to place an ad between you and your link. Don’t like it? It’ll cost ya.
Everything must enshittify.
Have link shorteners ever not been shitty? It obfuscates a link for the sake of making things look pretty for people who can't format text
Link shorteners have absolutely been useful when you need to go to a long URL on a entirely different device you can't copy a link to easily.
I've used them to make it easy to get to scripts.
Service-specific link shorteners are alright, like youtu.be, a.co and goo.gl/maps. At least know roughly where you're going.
For anything else, I rather see the full URLs, and if I need to share a link on a paper medium, I also make it available in a QRcode form.
When it comes to email I just have my server reject any containing links that point to URL shorteners. I’m not stupid enough to click them anyway but it’s safe to assume you’re just a scammer or some other lowlife, even if you’re otherwise considered a reputable business.
Laughs in Ublock Origin
Shocking. That's what we get for expecting companies to be benevolent stewards of the internet. They tricked us for a decade and a half but the sheep's clothing are coming off.
I haven’t seen a Bitly link in dog’s years and assumed it had died.
Host your own URL shortener with Yourls. It's great, loads of useful plugins too. (dot)ink domains are cheap so you can have fun with namel.ink like I did.
I’ve had these losers DNS blocked for years. Don’t respond to abuse reports? Get NXDOMAIN’d.
