No longer a forum herald
According to a different question on the very same Yahoo Answers (assuming it's not also you asking it there), it's a bogus site
. Don't touch it with a hundred foot wooden ladder, or anything else.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Ironically, that's my question. Someone removed the guy who told me to check the site out. The idea of a url shortener hiding away a malicious site scares me.
No longer a forum herald
Whoopsie. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
Anyway, there's nothing you can do about it that I know of. Unless someone has some sort of internet plug-in that "translates" shortened URLs for your benefit (probably is one somewhere, but I don't know of it).
edited 25th Oct '11 9:23:24 AM by TotemicHero
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
I've tried to no avail get the url expanded.
My recommendation: either ignore it outright (seriously, don't trust urls you don't know what they lead to) or ask the original answer...er, to re-post it with a preview. If they refuse, ignore them outright instead.
DUMB
That's quite a bit of what they're used for.
According to this site, it expands to http://www.labnol.org, a boring and basically safe-looking tech blog. That is indeed where it goes when I check (I'm probably safe from most drive-by downloads etc.).
As for why it's being spammed. As you can see from adf.ly's homepage, one earns USD$4 for every 1000 people linked through one of one's shortened URLs.
edited 25th Oct '11 9:38:32 AM by Tzetze
[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.
... Wow... That one guy was right.
Went to Web Of Trust (Who, btw, consider us "the crack of the intertubes" 
) and it gave me few answers. Posting few user comments:
Commonly, these schemes periodically reorganize under an alleged "crisis" after exhausting downstream members' resources. Because the pervasity of these schemes generally degrades the Internet's quality of information and resources, everyone loses.
This site specifically combines a link-shortening service with a "Paid-To-Click" click fraud scheme which employs distributed zombie click spamming to artificially inflate affiliates' page rank and/or to drain competitors' pay-per-click advertising funds, a subject of successful lawsuits.
Usually these web sites pose no immediate technical threat to visitors' computers. Details:
http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/12466-trishah-com "
Yeah, don't go there.
I explored the site with a Sandboxie. There didn't seem be any problems.
DUMB
Oh, I see, it's the URL shortener itself that's dangerous. It did throw up an ad at me.
[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.
Some time ago on Yahoo Answers, I got an answer from someone telling me to go to adf.ly/2zqCE. I googled it and nothing helpful came up, but I did see so many people using the code for every question. When I asked what it is, some guy came up and told me to just go on it. I check his history, and he too was spamming this odd code. Does anyone logical know what this is? I'm too scared to find out myself, even with my Sandboxie.