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Not necessarily, take a look at both examples:

- I saw an iphone clone at httq://tinyurl.com/blahblah here is the pic httq://twitpic.com/blahblah compare it to this httq://tinyurl.com/moreblah

- I saw an iphone clone at LINK here is the pic LINK compare it to this LINK

See? more room for cleaner, longer messages.

Cellphones get the LINK word, browsers get the clickable LINK

but cellphones may get half of the message only, as it is limited to 140 chars.

No, the message is still limited to 140 chars, for cellphones or browsers, the link handling is done behind doors.

So where does the phone get the URL, another message?

Phones don't get the url, just the LINK placeholder, you can not navigate on a cellphone.

Now, smartphones, they use browsers, browsers can read html, then they get the url under the LINK placeholder.