I find link mangling to be a great test for when a service becomes too powerful relative to its users, able to add friction to its product that serves no purpose for its users[1]. Google started doing this around 2004[2]. Facebook didn't do it until a few years ago. Slack and Discord don't do it. Yet.
[1] Example: a search result that's a pdf. How do I share this link? If I click on it it downloads to my disk. If I rightclick on it I can copy a crappy URL.
[1] Example: a search result that's a pdf. How do I share this link? If I click on it it downloads to my disk. If I rightclick on it I can copy a crappy URL.
[2] http://akkartik.name/firefox.html