Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. There is a simple method 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 rather of to whatever the initial URL was.

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

There is a simple method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The trick is to just 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.
You can try this technique with a URL that I 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 discussion URL and see when I created the shortened URL..
Watch this brief video to see how you can use the “+” trick to learn whats concealed behind a Bitly link..

Applications for Education.
Building excellent digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that everybody ought to be assisting our students do. Showing them little suggestions like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is one of the manner ins which we can help our students build their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it somewhere else, it has been utilized without consent.

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

If you desire to attempt this with a TinyURL, tinyurl.com/emkns9a8 will lead you to the page for the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp, however adding a “+” at the end of that TinyURL will take you to the page where you can see the original link without clicking it.

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.