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Are you not sick and tired of tinyurl?

by Tony Dean
14 replies
It seems about every third spam email I receive has a tinyurl redirect in it. What is it about these people they can't use their own website url?
It is easily traceable by clicking on the link anyway.

I don't see very long url's come into it to need a tinyurl redirect.

What does the owners of tinyurl get out of supplying spammers with a free redirect anyway?
#sick #tinyurl #tired
  • Profile picture of the author TinkBD
    For quite a while now, ZoneAlarm on my desktop has been blocking TinyURLs. I haven't been able to get it to unblock them and by now, I have quit trying.

    I hate seeing TinyURL links because I know I won't be able to get thru... ;-(

    I find it especially frustrating when it happens on a Tweet.
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    • Profile picture of the author acedalright
      Originally Posted by TinkBD View Post

      For quite a while now, ZoneAlarm on my desktop has been blocking TinyURLs. I haven't been able to get it to unblock them and by now, I have quit trying.

      I hate seeing TinyURL links because I know I won't be able to get thru... ;-(

      I find it especially frustrating when it happens on a Tweet.

      Amen to that!

      Especially on a tweet!
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  • Profile picture of the author cesarsan
    I guess these are newbie sp(c)ammers thinking they are protecting themselves using an URL shortener. TinyURL probably can't do much against these losers.
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  • Profile picture of the author khairulazan
    No need tp tinyurl of it is short...

    I agree..
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  • Profile picture of the author superaffiliate09
    Hi Tony
    I agree with you.Tinyurl is a great tool for the newbies to hide their affiliate links for free but many of them start trying to spam using their service(Though it's useless because the links are exposed when you click on the tinyurl).
    The owners of Tinyurl are making a killing(Due to huge volumes of traffic) by placing sponsored ads and a Paypal donation button.That is why the service has been continuing for so many years.
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  • Profile picture of the author netwiz
    i have noticed that its especially useful for twitter, however i emails it seems a bit foolish to put in shortened links
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeyman120
    Originally Posted by Tony Dean View Post

    What does the owners of tinyurl get out of supplying spammers with a free redirect anyway?
    Good question and I have no idea from visiting their site last time I was there. I have been using bit.ly to shorten links for twitter. They also track clicks so you can see if your tweets links are getting clicked.

    Mike
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    • Profile picture of the author davidomni
      Banned
      Originally Posted by mikeyman120 View Post

      Good question and I have no idea from visiting their site last time I was there. I have been using bit.ly to shorten links for twitter. They also track clicks so you can see if your tweets links are getting clicked.

      Mike
      I think the same applied to bit.ly

      Cheers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
    Originally Posted by Tony Dean View Post

    What does the owners of tinyurl get out of supplying spammers with a free redirect anyway?
    Tony, let's pretend that YOU are the owner of TinyURL and someone tries to use your free service right now. How do you know whether s/he is a spammer or not? How do you know NOW that AFTER some minutes that person will spam someone? Impossible, right?

    I don't know what is the situation right now, but they had a system in place that was checking if the domain names from the links are blacklisted or not by certain blocklists. If the domain name was found in their database, the shortening service didn't work. For example, that was the case for ClickAudit tracking links. When ClickAudit was still live, many spammers used it, the domain name was blacklisted and TinyUrl forms were rejecting any request for shortening a clickaudit link.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neromancer
    Tiny URL was also redirecting clicks for a while directly inhouse first and explaining where the link was going to anyhow. So why bother?
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    • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
      Originally Posted by Neromancer View Post

      Tiny URL was also redirecting clicks for a while directly inhouse first and explaining where the link was going to anyhow. So why bother?
      That feature was always there and it's still there. When someone uses their service, that user gets TWO links. The first link is a direct redirect, the second one is a preview link. The user chooses the one s/he likes...

      However, no serious marketer (incl. pro spammers ) will choose the preview link. Why? It's obvious ... the preview link loses traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lpdesigner
    I haven't had any issues with tinyurl so.. I dunno.
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  • Profile picture of the author sabukhitam
    My post may be a little bit out of topic,

    But talking about TinyURL,

    I wonder if all shortener url services is a good business model?

    I think I have a good idea of making something like that, but of course better feature :

    for example :
    1. Optionally use random string or proffered text (http://short.com/asdasda or http://short.com/my_word
    2. Optionally use redirect, or cloack the web
    3. OPtionally add POP UP (opt in form) or not
    4. API to call from other apps like twitter
    5. good statistic
    6. etc

    Please advice

    Love always

    Yuan
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