Best of 2021 – See What’s Behind Bitly and TinyURL Without Clicking

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been utilized without permission if you see it in other places.

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive used for numerous years. There is an easy way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually 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 instead of to whatever the original URL was.

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 it.

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for several years. As a signed up user I can create custom-made, reduced URLs that people can really spell. I use these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides discussion since the default URLs supplied by those services are always long and incoherent..

Heres a video overview of how to see whats behind a TinyURL without really clicking the link.

Applications for Education.
Structure great digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that everyone need to be helping our trainees do. Showing them little ideas like this one to prevent clicking suspicious links is one of the ways that we can help our students build their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.

Not all Bitly users are using them for good factors. Some people use them to hide dubious links. There is a simple way to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The trick is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will reroute 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 show you what the initial link was..
You can attempt this trick with a URL that I just recently reduced. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly to a copy of the slides that I utilized 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 produced the reduced URL..
Enjoy this short video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover whats concealed behind a Bitly link..

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

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