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Comment by RiderOfGiraffes | Hacker News Reader

Here's a flip side.

When I see a link I like and I want to pass it on to others, using bit.ly lets me track how many people follow it. If I just give out the link directly I have no idea how much effect my recommendation has had.

This is especially useful when recommending things for business. Already I've seent aht one way of recommending things is getting far more attention than another. Without some sort of tracking I would've known.

It's much more of an effort for me to put up some sort of referring system via other methods I can track - bit/ly provides me with this for free, both in terms of effort and money.

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1) You're potentially breaking the web because those links you're posting aren't guaranteed to last forever.

2) By posting bitly links, you're encouraging people to click on shortened links. Shortened links can be used to disguise malware, viruses, etc.

3) I don't feel that you have the right to know how many people click on a link on a domain you don't own.

No link is guaranteed to last forever. Well, maybe example.com and 127.0.0.1 ? Also, the links are being backed up by the Internet Archive's 301Works project. http://www.301works.org/faq/organization/what-url-shorteners...

I don't deny any of that, I'm just saying that there are advantages.

For stuff I care about long term I put a reference on my own site, and I either cache the target page myself, of record enough of it that a Google search is likely to find something similar. That way I can fix it if it breaks.

For stuff that I don't care about beyond three months, why should I bother? OK, perhaps I should bother because of the potential for malware, etc, and I recognise that, but for me, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

If you think this is wrong, offer me a service that makes my life easier, otherwise all you're doing is saying "Don't do that."

And I'm not sure that I don't have at least some right to know how many people click on a link that I've provided, even if it's to someone else's domain. If I can get that information, and it's of use to me, why should I not do it?

Finally, I'm not talking about the links on my domains. For them I use long references. I'm talking about links provided in SMS, Facebook IM, twitter, and other similar media. I don't really see how providing short links there are "breaking the web" and would be interested in an clarification you'd care to offer.

(edited within minutes for typos and clarification.)

1) Most things on the internet don't last forever.

2) My idea of internet is that when I make impact I know about and can use that to make better impact. You are entitled to have your own idea of internet, but not to its superiority.

3) If you don't want me to know that you click on a link I sent you, don't click on it.

Shortened links are misleading, I might have not clicked your links if you wouldn't be hiding it. (already seen it, hate that specific blog, etc) - this makes your stats wrong cause many people might have clicked the link and closed it right away.

Last time I checked, bit.ly's statistics were counting all kinds of bots and did not allow filtering by useragent - they might have fixed this but in case they didn't then your stats are way wrong.

I'm aware of the counting limitations, and I believe I'm allowing for them in the rough and ready analysis I'm doing of the numbers I get. I have already seen that certain places get virtually no return, others get a lot. Adjusting my presences accordingly has increased my flow substantially, and while I'm aware that further tuning will require more detailed analysis, and more careful techniques, what I've done so far has been very useful as a first step.

I believe my points stand - bit.ly is useful for this context. I also believe you over-estimate the world's reactions to shortened links. My target is not the technically able, or even the technically aware. They see a link and click, unknowing and uncaring as to whether it's short, long or something in between.

I've done that analysis.

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