URL shorteners

Yesterday, Twitter was bombarded by tweets using the hashtags beforesex, aftersex, and duringsex. It wasnt long before people were using those tags to send out malicious links. Its a problem because virus makers know that any trending topic is likely to be searched for a lot, so they can just ride that wave and catch unsuspecting users who are curious to click on links.

Googles Joshua Schachter, who started Delicious, wrote about this and the other problems with URL shorteners earlier this year.

While URL shorteners like Bit.ly have begun warning users about potentially harmful links, others dont bother. And lets be honest, most of us click on links from friends regardless of what URL shortener they are using.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Kiruba
• Kiruba2020