They also increase link rot (full urls give you at least some information like: the domain, date, and title slug) and deteriorate the open nature of the web by

They also increase link rot (full urls give you at least some information like: the domain, date, and title slug) and deteriorate the open nature of the web by locking a link behind some company's proprietary database that is liable to disappear without a trace. Please just share the full link next time, even if it is long. > URL shorteners may be one of the worst ideas, one of the most backward ideas, to come out of the last five years... To someone in the future, it'll be like everyone from a certain era of history, say ten years of the 18th century, started speaking in a one-time pad of cryptographic pass phrases. - Presentation at PDAC 2011 by Jason Scott