URL-shortening services, offered by TinyURL.com and Bit.ly and becomes a popular target of attacks. After reading the article you will probably not automatically click on the shortened URL!
Originally the process of shortening URLs was developed to prevent damage to the URL in the e-mail messages. The still growing popularity of instant messaging (IM) or Twitter was still increasing use URL shortening services, Twitter has a limit of 140 characters long per message and longer links can not be sent through it.