Using Links in Posts
Make That Link 'Shorter'!
Sometimes we post a question/problem and we get an answer in the form of a link. But when we click on it, we get 'Page not found' or something else that says 'Ain't no such place', etc.
What we have failed to notice, the link 'wrapped'. It was such a long link that it was not all on one line, but two lines (maybe more!). This is also known as 'a broken link'.
When this happens, open notepad. Copy the first line and paste it into notepad. Then copy the second line and paste it into notepad, being careful to add it exactly at the end on the first line. Now, copy the entire line and paste it into the address line on your web browser. You should now be able to see the website in question.
Of course it would be much easier if the original poster made the link 'shorter'. There are several websites that exist just for this purpose!
- Snipurl: http://snipurl.com/
- Tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/
- 1url: http://1url.org/
There may be some more of these sites that make the links 'shorter. I have all of these listed in my Bookmarks (Favorites) and I try to use them if the links I want to send are long.
Good practice is to provide both, the really long link (for those folks that don't want to click blindly on a shorter link) and the 'snipped', 'tiny is better' or 'chicks dig shorter....urls'.
Some naughty folks have started using the shortened links to take folks to bad sites. So unless you trust the person who provided the link, maybe it's better to just forget that link.
You should be able to trust shortened (tiny) links in Groups/lists, but you never know for sure. If the poster has shown in the past he/she is trustworthy, maybe it's ok. But don't forget, spammers have spoofed email addresses and hacked email accounts.