URL Shortners are websites that claim to make the url small so that you can have a customized url and don't need to send the long URL to anyone (e.g. "bit.ly", "tr.im" etc.). They are very popular with social networking sites such as twitter where there is a character limit to what you can post. The best thing about it is - its free !
URL shortening services work by redirection and this conceals the URL of the actual website you are landing on to. So, someone could send you a link that says "http://bit.ly/dtFGUq" and actually send you to "http://www.techpandit.in/". Security is a big concern here because you may get redirected to a website (hosted by the hacker) that hosts some browser exploit to download malware on your system or run some evil script on your browser before you know it.
"For every new invention, there is a equal and opposite invention". There is a website called "http://longurl.org/". It will expand and show you every small url that you type in. So, next time you receive such shortened links use this website and be sure that you are getting redirected to the correct website.
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