As I do every year, Im taking today as a break from releasing 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 adding a “+” at the end of that TinyURL will take you to the page where you can see the initial link without clicking on it.

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

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive utilized for numerous years. As a registered user I can create customized, shortened URLs that individuals can actually spell. I utilize these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation since the default URLs provided by those services are constantly long and incoherent..

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has been used without approval if you see it somewhere else.

Applications for Education.
Structure good digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that everyone need to be helping our trainees do. Revealing them little suggestions like this one to prevent clicking suspicious links is one of the manner ins which we can assist our trainees construct their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. There is an easy method to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking on the link. The trick is to merely include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the initial URL was.

Not all Bitly users are utilizing them for good reasons. Some people use them to hide nefarious links. There is an easy method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact 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. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will reveal you what the initial link was..
You can try this technique with a URL that I just recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you straight to a copy of the slides that I used in my current Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my original presentation URL and see when I developed the reduced URL..
See this short video to see how you can utilize the “+” technique to find out whats concealed behind a Bitly link..