If you believe that a) links are good for the web, and b) everything disappears at some point, then link shortening services are bad for the web. A shortened l

If you believe that a) links are good for the web, and b) everything disappears at some point, then link shortening services are bad for the web. A shortened link will disappear when (not if) the shortening service disappears. If that is sooner than the site it was linking to disappeared, then it's a net negative for the web. Link shortening services for the domain they live on are slightly less bad, since their lifespan is somewhat more likely to be equal to that of the destinations of the links (although it's still likely they'll live shorter).