But why?
I prefer to know where I'm going to end up when I click on a link. I had a few spam emails recently that had a shortened url that pointed to another shortened url in order to obfuscate the final destination.
What is the problem short urls are trying to solve?
I know email systems used to break wrapped urls, but are there any that still do?
Is it just that a shortened url is easier to remember to find a deep link somewhere? But most links are cut and pasted around. I don't think anyone has ever told me a short url so I could type it in myself.
Or is it just that it hides the destination and allows link tracking?
To find out the destination of a short url, this is your friend - http://www.unshorten.com/
If there isn't one already, a firefox plugin that does the lookup when hovering over a short link and pops up the destination would be a nice idea.