URL Shorteners have always been a big topic on the Hacker News. It seems like every week someone creates a new link shortener service or they post an article on why to use or not to use link shorteners.<p>With companies like Google, Git, and others deprecating their link shortener services, you may think why do we still need URL shorteners in 2022? From the sheer number of short URLs on the internet from major services like T.LY, it appears for the time being that URL shorteners will be around for years to come.<p>So do they still serve a purpose? What are your thoughts?