- Jun 24, 2001
- 24,195
- 857
- 126
Using www.tinyurl.com , one can enter a URL of any length and have it turned into a "tiny URL" absolutely free. The tiny URL will forward any request on to the actual full-length URL.
To do this, the site must obviously collect and store the URLs entered and can easily monitor the "hits" each receives. It probably does.
The nature of the site (collecting and storing URLs through a "click-through" service) seems to be a data-mining operation. The kind of thing SpyBot or AdAware would block cookies from.
There is no privacy policy regarding the service.
If I had the resources and the idea, I would have created a site very similar to this and also provided the service for free, so I find it perfectly possible that the operator may be doing this out of the goodness of his own heart, however...
The operator, "Gilby," specifically mentions that you may hide "affiliate" (Referral) URLs because the person using the TinyURL will only see the TinyURL before clicking and the actual URL after clicking. Could the operator be doing the same thing? Could a cookie track your usage of other websites once TinyURL becomes popular?
They offer a javascript form for use in other websites and a toolbar button for end-users. Internet Explorer warns you the the button may be unsafe, even though it's just a button on the Links toolbar.
Also, why isn't the database open to the public? I mean, if you think about it, what happens when his site goes down, possibly for good? Are the real URLs linked to in thousands of message board posts lost forever?
Now, if only Google offered a service like this
IMAGINE the relevant search results (Google ranks pages on how often they are linked to by other pages)!
I tried Googling and running SpyBot after allowing the "unsafe" link and found nothing suspicious, but there is too much potential for abuse and too little information about the service's intentions so I figured I'd make my suspicions known.
I'm sending this email now:
To do this, the site must obviously collect and store the URLs entered and can easily monitor the "hits" each receives. It probably does.
The nature of the site (collecting and storing URLs through a "click-through" service) seems to be a data-mining operation. The kind of thing SpyBot or AdAware would block cookies from.
There is no privacy policy regarding the service.
If I had the resources and the idea, I would have created a site very similar to this and also provided the service for free, so I find it perfectly possible that the operator may be doing this out of the goodness of his own heart, however...
The operator, "Gilby," specifically mentions that you may hide "affiliate" (Referral) URLs because the person using the TinyURL will only see the TinyURL before clicking and the actual URL after clicking. Could the operator be doing the same thing? Could a cookie track your usage of other websites once TinyURL becomes popular?
They offer a javascript form for use in other websites and a toolbar button for end-users. Internet Explorer warns you the the button may be unsafe, even though it's just a button on the Links toolbar.
Also, why isn't the database open to the public? I mean, if you think about it, what happens when his site goes down, possibly for good? Are the real URLs linked to in thousands of message board posts lost forever?
Now, if only Google offered a service like this
IMAGINE the relevant search results (Google ranks pages on how often they are linked to by other pages)!I tried Googling and running SpyBot after allowing the "unsafe" link and found nothing suspicious, but there is too much potential for abuse and too little information about the service's intentions so I figured I'd make my suspicions known.
I'm sending this email now:
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