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

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. There is a simple way to rapidly 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 add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the initial URL was.

Applications for Education.
Structure good digital citizenship and cyber security abilities is something that all of us need to be assisting our students do. Showing them little ideas like this one to prevent clicking suspicious links is among the ways that we can help our students construct their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.

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, 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.

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive utilized for lots of years. As a signed up user I can produce custom-made, reduced URLs that individuals can actually spell. I use these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation because the default URLs supplied by those services are incoherent and constantly long..

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

Regrettably, not all Bitly users are using them for good factors. Some individuals use them to conceal nefarious links. Fortunately, there is an easy way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking the link. The technique is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly rather 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 original link was..
You can attempt this technique with a URL that I recently reduced. 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 presentation URL and see when I developed the shortened URL..
See this short video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has been used without consent if you see it in other places.