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Expanding what users see while keeping the original links in tact

FeedMagnet automatically expands shortened links that we find in Twitter and other sources. This is great for people viewing your feeds because it makes it easier to see where the link is going to take you. What would not be great would be if when users click the link, the go directly to the expanded URL, bypassing the shortened URL.

Here's why: if you are using a link shortener like [BudURL][], that provides analytics on how many people have clicked the link, what time/location the clicks were recorded at, and other data about the viral spread of your links, it is important that clicks are still processed by BudURL (or whatever link shortener you use) so you don't lose the opportunity to track those links.

We are kind to link shorteners

Recognizing the need for tracking and for making links prettier to users, we found a happy compromise: we show users the expanded URL, but keep all links pointing to the short URL. So a users sees the long URL, they click it, and from their perspective they go straight to that site, but what really happens is the link sends them to the link shortener, who expands it and redirects them, ensuring tracking still works as usual.