I have a feeling this general issue (whether focused on URL shorteners or sanitized, dumbed-down, closed interfaces) will become a much bigger deal in the next decade. I wonder if the Web itself ends up fragmented as a result, like in a sci-fi movie where there's a bubble city and outside it, everything is gritty, but real man (a la Demolition Man, Total Recall, etc.)

I have a feeling this general issue (whether focused on URL shorteners or sanitized, dumbed-down, closed interfaces) will become a much bigger deal in the next decade. I wonder if the Web itself ends up fragmented as a result, like in a sci-fi movie where there's a bubble city and outside it, everything is gritty, but real man (a la Demolition Man, Total Recall, etc.)

The URL shorteners are bad for the web just for the reason they hide the true destination thus allowing people with bad intentions to possibly do bad things…or the mischievous can rick-roll people.

Then again, I don't use Windows anymore, so I am not really concerned about some virus and I will not give my SSN, bank account # and pin code to anyone just because they asked.