I agree, but please don't let that be the short link. The Amazon link DannoHung mentions is a bit weird, but Amazon's default links are really helpful, with the title in it. People often link to a book like this: "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-Interfaces-Principles-In...; is a good book!" I find it useful that when I mouseover the link, I can see the title of the book, and then realize I either already know the book, don't like the book, or would like to read more. If the link is just <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008031">this</a...; I have to click before knowing what exactly the book is that the person recommends.

Useful URL's are a good thing and it saddens me that the current debate does not focus on that more and that people even argue that standard url's should be short and non descriptive.