What if, the next time you went on the internet, you clicked on a link and nothing happened?
What if billions of internet links all stopped working at once?
As 2010 approaches, this is exactly the problem that the internet is facing. So great is the concern that the Internet Archive in the United States has already begun what some people are calling one of the most important repair jobs in the web’s history.
The problem lies with the internet’s shortcut services. Web addresses are typically very long, but a number of sites allow people to cut them down to a few characters. These services, such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com, are incredibly popular, and users create billions of slimmed-down web addresses every month.
Shortcuts