As ubercore mentioned, some email clients will still break up links. Further, not everything supports html - they are valuable for formats that primarily rely

As ubercore mentioned, some email clients will still break up links. Further, not everything supports html - they are valuable for formats that primarily rely on text: Text-based emails are a lot easier/better with a url-shortener. IRC conversations are better with a url-shortener. Etc. On the other hand, they don't seem to be the big deal that everyone is making them out to be.