Dear Essex-UK Listers, TinyURLs are a useful way of sending a long web address (URL.) They are easy to generate, just go to < http://tinyurl.com > and enter the long URL at the prompt. However, please do be aware that they do hide the target website and can be misused to direct you to sites you might not want to see. I am sure none of our subscribers would post a link to a malicious or undesirable web site, but it is possible (although, I hope, unlikely) for someone to subscribe just to try and trick you into visiting a dodgy site. When sending TinyURLs to the list please also include the full URL. There are addition advantages of using long web addresses, in that you could tell from the full URL if you have already visited that web page and those web addresses can be better found when searching the list archives. Regards Elmo. -- --Keith Elmo ELDRIDGE Essex-UK-Admin@rootsweb.com --Elmo@aphelia.co.uk --Buxworth, High Peak, Derbyshire, England. --List Administrator of the Essex-UK mailing list

Keith Elmo Eldridge wrote: > TinyURLs are a useful way of sending a long web address (URL.) > They are easy to generate, just go to < http://tinyurl.com > and > enter the long URL at the prompt. Agreed. Using angle brackets will also hold a long URL together. > However, please do be aware that they do hide the target website > and can be misused to direct you to sites you might not want to > see. [...] It does if you only use the tinyURL *but* they do offer a preview option which allows people to see what site they are going to before they arrive, eg http://preview.tinyurl.com/6kgx7h which I got from another list. (It takes you to an MoD site, BTW.) The lack of any indication as to where a TinyURL was going was a good reason for not using them but using MakeAShorterLink instead (which did offer a preview) but they joined forces with TinyURL who subsequently started offering the preview option as well.