# Are URL-Shortening websites legit?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-url-shortening-websites-legit/524184>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 8, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-url-shortening-websites-legit/524184 "2010-01-08T18:29:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-url-shortening-websites-legit/524184/21 "2010-01-10T01:11:50Z")

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> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> Ah that’s good to know. Even if they don’t provide it for you, you can make your own preview by adding that prefix to the url right?

I didn’t think of it when I posted, but that is correct.

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**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-url-shortening-websites-legit/524184/22 "2010-01-10T04:00:47Z")

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There’s also a Firefox add-on that expands any TinyURL it finds for you. Like a lot of people, I don’t like these shorteners. If a forum won’t take a long URL, then it’s a necessity, I guess. But usually, it’s just someone trying to hide the web-page from you. IMHO.

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-url-shortening-websites-legit/524184/23 "2010-01-10T04:27:29Z")

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How long do these sites keep the tiny URLs you make with them?

Here’s a URL shortener with one character before the country domain.

[http://縮.jp/](http://xn--jj0a.jp/)

Yes, that’s a Japanese kanji character, and yes, it’s in the actual domain name. Here’s a blog entry that explains it:

> **[The World Shortest URL Shortener Using Internationalized Domain Name](https://asiajin.com/blog/2009/09/the-world-shortest-url-shortener-using-international-domain-name/)**
>
> Yesterday I introduced a crazy 14 letters twitter clone and how much Japanese are obsessed with smallness. And today I am amazed again. A blogger Jamadam released an interesting URL shortening serv…

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