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, however including a “+” at the end of that TinyURL will take you to the page where you can see the initial link without clicking it.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has been used without approval if you see it elsewhere.

Applications for Education.
Structure great digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that all of us need to be helping our trainees do. Showing them little tips like this one to prevent clicking suspicious links is one of the manner ins which we can help our trainees construct their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.

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

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

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive used for numerous years. There is an easy way to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The technique is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the original URL was.

Not all Bitly users are using them for excellent reasons. Some people utilize them to conceal nefarious links. There is a simple way to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The technique is to just add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was. That will then reveal you the Bitly page on which the reduced URL is hosted and will reveal you what the original link was..
You can try this trick with a URL that I recently reduced. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly 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 initial presentation URL and see when I developed the shortened URL..
Enjoy this short video to see how you can use the “+” trick to find out whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive used for numerous years. As a registered user I can develop custom, shortened URLs that people can really spell. I use these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation because the default URLs offered by those services are incoherent and always long..