QR codes for short links

What the code encodes

The QR code on a result page encodes the short address, nothing else: the domain and the code. Every camera that reads it lands on the short link, which is the same address the human readers get. Encoding the long destination instead would print a code that bypasses the intermediate page — the page that shows a visitor where they go before the browser follows it — so the short form is the one the code carries.

Why print the short form

• The code stays small and scans from across a room; a long destination makes a denser grid that needs a close-up.
• The destination can be corrected without reprinting: the short address is permanent, and a link whose target changes is corrected at the service, not on the poster.
• An expired link is expired for the QR and the text alike; the printed address never starts pointing somewhere new.

Read the code like a reader

A QR code is an opaque address: a camera opens whatever the pattern says. Safe Browsing's own guidance treats unvetted destinations as the risk to check before a click — and before a print run. Scan the code yourself and read the intermediate page: the full address is printed there in plain text, which is the same courtesy the print version of the link offers a reader who checks the words (WCAG 2.2 asks a link's purpose to be clear from its context; on paper, the words beside the code are that context).