Beware of Clicking on Shortened URLs

It seems like there’s always something new to beware of on the web. Although not new, spammers and others are using shortened URLs to their advantage.

About Shortened URLs
Shortened URLs can be created by using services such as TinyURL. They’re especially convenient for providing links to URLs that are exceptionally long. The service shortens a long URL, such as 100 characters, into something as short as 15 characters, making it fit on one line and short enough to  fit in messages, such as Twitter, that limit the amount of characters in a post.

The Problem
For example, if the URL points to Amazon.com, instead of being able to see that it really does point to a page on Amazon all you see is this.

http://tinyurl.com/n93tvz

The “http://amazon.com/” part of the URL is hidden and you don’t know if it really takes you to Amazon’s website.

A Solution?
TinyURL offers a preview option. Instead of taking you directly to the site the URL points to, the preview option takes you to TinyURL to view the original. Here’s the preview URL for the same page on Amazon.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/n93tvz

First it takes the surfer to TinyURL to view the original URL and provides a link to “proceed to this site.” It looks like a safer option but I imagine spammers will find a way to get around this.

Visit:
TinyURL.com
Information Week

Read More:
Information Week’s article Web Link Shrinkage Powers Spam Surge by Thomas Claburn .

Wikipedia, Journalism, and Misinformation

Shane Fitzgerald a UCD student studying sociology and economics purposely posted incorrect information on French composer, Maurice Jarre’s, Wikipedia page.

After learning of Jarre’s death through Sky News on March 30th, Fitzgerald posted a completely made up quote on Wikipedia. His goal was to “show the potential dangers that arise” from journalists’ heavy reliance on the World Wide Web for their news sources.

Shortly after Fitzgerald posted the information Wikipedia administrators removed it and he put it back again. Along came some legitimate newspaper journalists who picked up the information and printed it in their newspapers. These newspapers didn’t know they printed inaccurate information until Fitzgerald informed them.

It is common knowledge that misinformation is posted on Wikipedia. Call me naive but I didn’t realize respected journalists use Wikipedia as their one and only information source.

Why didn’t the journalists do their research? Has getting the news out before competitors come before the goal of quality journalism? Did this story have lower priority than others and as a result was given less time for research and writing? Do consumers demand immediacy over quality?

Hmmm, I think I’ll follow my English teacher’s advice and get my information from more than one source.

Read Shane Fitzgerald’s Lazy Journalism Exposed by Online Hoax at the IrishTimes.com

Read Shane Hegarty’s IrishTimes.com article, Unrealiably Informed, about the problems journalists face in finding reliable information.

Urban Legends

Have you heard about the recent Postcard / Greeting Card virus or the UPS virus? Or maybe you’ve heard some crazy story about President-Elect Barack Obama. To learn about the truthfulness of those bizarre stories you hear check out Snopes.com. It’s an interesting and informative site about urban legends.