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Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. There is a simple method to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The technique is to just include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

There is an easy way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking on the link. The trick is to merely include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.
You can try this trick with a URL that I just recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly to a copy of the slides that I utilized in my recent Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my original discussion URL and see when I produced the reduced URL..
View this short video to see how you can utilize the “+” technique to learn whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive used for several years. As a signed up user I can develop custom, shortened URLs that people can in fact spell. I use these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation since the default URLs offered by those services are incoherent and always long..

Heres a video introduction of how to see whats behind a TinyURL without actually clicking on the link.

As I do every year, Im taking today as a break from publishing new article and will be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year. Heres one from April.

If you wish to try this with a TinyURL, tinyurl.com/emkns9a8 will lead you to the page for the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp, but including a “+” at the end of that TinyURL will take you to the page where you can see the initial link without clicking on it.

Applications for Education.
Building excellent digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that all of us need to be helping our students do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is among the methods that we can assist our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.