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But that does make it unusable for anything but directly posting it into the address field of your own browser window.

Which means you end up having to open the URL first yourself just to copy and share it. And that doesn't even always work, since URLs triggering downloads don't update the URL in the address field (at least in Firefox).

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Lets try.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

I'm sharing it with you. Is this unusable? Did you not get to the news article I was sharing with you by clicking on the link? So what's your point?

It's unusable. Before I clicked the link I couldn't tell if it was going to take me to chicagotribune.com (it does) or go*tse.cx.

"before you clicked" the link you haven't used it.

I'd argue that link user experience starts before you actually click a link. Maybe when you're deciding whether or not to click?

Same reason that URL shorteners are bad UX. Source (creator of Delicious): http://joshua.schachter.org/2009/04/on-url-shorteners

I'd argue that the vast majority of users have no idea what you're talking about.

That's my problem. I cannot in good faith give this kind of link to my friends.

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