Domains and URL shorteners

[sandyd]

Recently, Ive noticed that a lot of tweeters (including myself...) have been using their own URL shortening services (other than bit.ly, is.gd .etc .etc).

The thing is, a lot of these tweeters (such as techcrunch) use TLDs that do not correspond to the country their in. For example techcrunch uses tcrn.ch, and the last time I checked, they are NOT based in switzerland. Im planning on buying one of those thingies myself (dolp.au), and im wondering if registering these domains just to make the shortened url look nice is is really right/ethical.

[YuiDaoren]

I don't see any ethical consideration here. The TLD isn't a promise of location or quality. All it tells you is a little something about how the domain has been registered.

[sandyd]

I don't see any ethical consideration here. The TLD isn't a promise of location or quality. All it tells you is a little something about how the domain has been registered.
yes, but this defeats the purpose of TLDs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain

[YuiDaoren]

yes, but this defeats the purpose of TLDs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain
That purpose has been compromised since the word "go", though. For every reason, like countries making a little revenue selling domains under their TLD.

That you're talking about a redirection service obfuscates the ethics further. Even if the redirect service really is in Tonga, ".to", the browser is going to be redirected somewhere else anyway. TLD's original purpose doesn't seem to apply here.