Aren't you glad you didn't cite this webpage?
I publish a print magazine. Up to this point, we've avoided printing URLs in the magazine, because our printed issues may last longer than the links will stay live.<p>To solve the problem, we're launching our own link shortener this month, and printing our own shortened links in the magazine. That way we can control what happens when link rot sets in, whether redirecting or caching content on our own servers if necessary (and allowed by copyright).<p>The side benefit is that all our printed links can be easy to read and type, an important usability concern when dealing with print. A little self-referential branding on the shortener doesn't hurt, either.