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Eh, for links to content on my website I just cooked up my own URL shortener using Apache rewrite maps and a little scripting to generate the short codes. Simple, private, and entirely under my control (which also means I don't have to worry about the links breaking).

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I did that for a while with a short domain I used to own (urlb.at). Then ended up regretting it and shutting it down.

I eventually decided that URL shorteners were a terrible idea for the web and that I wanted the 'actual' URLs out there.

> Then ended up regretting it and shutting it down.

Care to elaborate?

I assume because it creates/introduces an arguably unnecessary point of potential future failure.

Also possibly because URL shorteners are frequently abused, e.g. to obfuscate links in spam. Operating one responsibly is a considerable amount of work.

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