[kwantam]

Totally true. It seems to me that for most of the legitimate temporary uses (e.g., shortening a google maps URL), that's not a huge issue.

Agreed that there's still, e.g., the problem of people hiding affiliate links behind shorteners and the like.

Note also that you can always append = to the URL to get its status page, which tells you where the link goes. (I realize this is a less than satisfying solution to the general problem.)

[copypasteweb]

It's not about affiliate links or advertisements. Target URL should be just there, without contacting random servers to determine it.