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

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

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

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. There is a simple way to quickly identify 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 add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the initial URL was.

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive utilized for several years. As a registered user I can develop customized, reduced URLs that people can really 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 supplied by those services are always long and incoherent..

There is an easy way to quickly 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 add the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly rather 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 used 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 presentation URL and see when I created the shortened URL..
Enjoy this brief video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

If you wish 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 original link without clicking on it.

Applications for Education.
Building great digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that all of us ought to be helping our students do. Showing them little suggestions like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is one of the ways that we can help our students develop their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.