What is a shortened URL?
What are all those letters and numbers and where do they go?
A URL is a website address and a shortened URL is an abbreviation of that web address. You can find the url at the top of your monitor or computer’s screen inside an open white space called the “address bar”. A URL usually begins with an http or an https at the beginning. URL means Uniform Resource Locator or Universal Resource Locator.
Technology is zooming forward at an incredible rate. We all enjoy the conveniences offered by mobile devices and digital services. As we enjoy these web-based conveniences, we also need to maintain the security of our online information. I’d like to talk with you about using shortened URLs to point to websites. If you keep up with family and friends with text messages or on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, you’ve probably seen shortened URLs. Many times a shortened URL is an innocent way to save character space and avoid typos when copying long addresses.
The URL is an important tool for you to understand if you spend any time on the Internet. Many times you can identify the destination website belonging to the URL address because of its name. For example, you can be perfectly assured where you will go when you click on such URLS as http://www.herald-leader.net or http://www.facebook.com. In fact, your computer’s browser is smart enough for you to simply type in “facebook.com” and it will open up the facebook homepage.
As I mentioned above, a shortened URL is an abbreviation of the full URL. Let’s look at some examples. The URL address of Fitzgerald’s Wild Chicken Festival is http://www.wildchickenfestival.com/index.html. Here are examples of some shortened urls which I made that all lead to the Wild Chicken Festival’s home page:
http://tinyurl.com/ox75qb7
http://goo.gl/5QEZi
http://ow.ly/mCwe5
The above three shortened URLs are an example of a few popular and free URL shortening programs. For you smartphone users, the website tinyurl.com (first example above) not only shortens a URL for you but also gives you the option of creating your own custom supershort version of a shortened url for the website you want your family and friends to see. The URL shortener goo.gl is Google’s solution for a URL shortener (second example above) and they offer a beautiful preview of the website whose address you are shortening with a easy copy-paste shortened URL address. Ow.ly is URL shortener that requires an extra layer of security by asking you to prove you are human by playing a 30 second game before you receive the shortened URL that you are requesting.
Now that we’ve covered the mechanics of shortened URLs, let’s explore some pros and cons of using them. URLs present themselves differently on computers (desktops or laptops) than they do on mobile devices (smartphones, Android tablets, iPads, Android-based MP3 players, and iPods).
The pro points about the shortened URLs is that they can be a safe and space-saving convenience. However, they are only “safe” when used with your family, friends, and familiar co-workers.
The con point can be summed up like this: Do not open (click or tap) any shortened URL unless you trust the sender of that link. The reason for this is that online thieves sometimes use multiple shortened URLs stacked behind each other so that you wouldn’t initially suspect any wrong doing. That is, the online thief could use a seemingly safe website URL to hide underneath it their own URL that then executes their program that steals your information. Don’t let this discourage you from using URL shorteners, but just follow the safe-use advice above.
If you’re on a computer or laptop, you can hover over a shortened URL by lightly placing the mouse cursor over that address. While doing that, look to the bottom left of your screen and you’ll see the destination address of that shortened URL. If you are on a mobile device or iPad, this technique isn’t possible.
There are a number of services, like longurl.org, that promise to check the shortened URL for safety. This free service claims that by using them you can “avoid phishing, maleware, and viruses by examining short URLs before visiting them. Find out where links really take you.”, it claims. I wouldn’t trust the safety of my computer with any of these sites or their promises. Why? Even the trusted Internet security companies, such as Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, Webroot, Trend Micro, and others say that a URL checker can only see the first layer URL, or to clarify, the first destination website. Following the cautious advice above should add enough safety to your workflow to make shortened URLs useable.
There are some free programs that are community services offered from major internet security providers. They say that they support safe URL checking:
Norton Security’s SafeWeb: https://safeweb.norton.com/
McAfee’s Site Advisor: http://www.siteadvisor.com/
You may want to use these if you feel comfortable with their diligent efforts to protect consumers.
One last point to consider is that full URL addresses can be just as dangerous as shortened URLs. The sometimes deceptive practices of cloaking, redirects, and masking are continually being addressed by computer security programs. Be sure to have a security program on all of your computers and devices.
Here are some tried and true programs that I can recommend:
Windows PCs: Microsoft Security Essentials
Apple iPad and iPod: Lookout app (not really a true antivirus, combine this with using multiple, strong passwords)
Android Tablets: Webroot: SecureAnything Mobile
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