Why does firefox fail to "unwrap" short url's such as <http://www.t.co/lOzX7dXcws>, giving an error as though I wasn't connected to the internet?
Firefox appears unable to open many different short url's, the kind typically shared by people on twitter, such as <http://www.t.co/lOzX7dXcws> , <http://t.co/R9YLLvatW7> , <http://t.co/SC8ATUqIf3>. I'm forced to use the website www.longurl.org to "unwrap" the short urls, and this website always works. I've also noticed that many of the short urls in question are rendered as bit.ly by the original sharer on twitter, but render as t.co in the browser when I click through. Any ideas why? This was not a problem some time, maybe 7 months to a year ago (now being Nov 2014). Something either changed in firefox, or in how short urls are made, and since then, they don't work.
Modified by cor-el
All Replies (5)
I tried the links on Firefox and IE. I think they are not correct.
But if you go to www.longurl.org and use their tool to unwrap the url's, they open just fine. Try and see. What is it that longurl are doing that firefox isn't doing, and why?
http://www.t.co/lOzX7dXcws is not found but if I remove the www then http://t.co/lOzX7dXcws works for me
The other two also work for me.
Could you check to make sure that you aren't blocking redirects? This is set on the Advanced panel of the Options dialog.
"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General mini-tab
If checked, uncheck the box for "Warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page"
As for what Twitter is doing with links, my guess it that they are auto-shortening them even if they already are shortened. This has some business benefits, i.e., they can track what links people are following and sell that data.
Note that the t.co links redirect two levels:
No, redirects are not blocked. I'll try removing the "www" and see. Thanks. Still, it nags me that a newer "technology" gives me issues where a proper, old school hyperlink wouldn't, regardless of what browser I'm using, coz opening hyperlinks is basically what a browser does so anyone who makes one sees to it it does this basic function well. If twitter is auto-shortening url's anyway, maybe people should stop using url shorteners explicitly/via their mobile browsers/apps and just leave twitter to do it. I've noticed that some short urls do work, but many are the ones that don't.