Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive utilized for several years. As a signed up user I can create custom, shortened URLs that people can actually spell. I utilize these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides discussion due to the fact that the default URLs provided by those services are incoherent and always long..

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 releasing 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 utilized for lots of years. There is an easy way to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking on the link. The technique 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.

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber security skills is something that everybody should be assisting our students do. Revealing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is one of the ways that we can assist our students construct their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.

If you want to attempt 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.

There is an easy method to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually 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 reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was.
You can attempt this technique 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 developed the reduced URL..
See this brief video to see how you can utilize the “+” trick to discover whats concealed behind a Bitly link..

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