Today, the United States Government decided to try its hand at URL shortening. That’s right soon you will be seeing http://go.usa.gov representing any .gov, .mil, and .si.edu URL. Oh, and they can only be sent by people the government approve.
It’s pretty risky business. The government has now spent tax dollars on a service that is not necessarily needed. URL shorteners are dropping right and left, and bit.ly is now becoming somewhat of a default URL shortener. However, I can see the reasoning behind go.usa.gov. The service was built to shorten government sites to one trustworthy URL. This way everyone knows that they will not be attacked by malware ninjas after clicking on it.
To gurauntee this protection, the ability to shorten any URL’s lies only in the hands of government employee’s. So the next time you see one of these URL’s you can be sure that Uncle Sam is watching out for you.
Be sure to check out some of the top shared government URL’s at their homepage http://go.usa.gov/
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.