Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>
> On Wed, 12 May 2004 13:39:56 -0400, <cowan@...> wrote:
>
> > John Hudson scripsit:
> >
> >> http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932026010/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-9092151-2482259
> >
> > In the interests of keeping Amazon URLs short, it is perhaps worth noting
> > that everything after the ASIN number (which is in the case of books the
> > ISBN) is dispensable, so
> >
> > http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932026010
> >
> > is sufficient.
>
> Good to know!
>
> TinyURL condenses beautifully, creating what looks like a base-36
> reference number. The longer one, above, is referred to as
> <http://tinyurl.com/2xvvd>.

Clicking posted links, far more often than not, produced long, long
waits for something that wasn't worth looking at in the first place.

Using "tinyurl" and equivalents conceals the domain name, and from the
domain name it's very often possible to determine the legitimacy of the
site in the first place, or whether it's going to try to sell you
something, etc.

I rarely click on links, and I never click on "tinyurl"s.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...