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

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has been used without consent if you see it elsewhere. Websites that frequently take my (Richard Byrnes) work consist of CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

The trick is to add a “+” to the end of any TinyURL address in order to land on a safe TinyURL page that exposes what the original link was that got shortened. You can then decide if you desire to click through to the destination or not.
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 including a “+” at the end of that TinyURL will take you to the page where you can see the initial link without clicking on it.

Ive tried the “+” technique with a bunch of other URL shortening tools and TinyURL is the just one besides Bitly that Ive found it to work with..
Whats the technique?

Applications for EducationAs I wrote recently, constructing great digital citizenship and cyber security skills is something that all of us should be assisting our students do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is one of the methods that we can help our trainees develop their digital citizenship and cyber safety skills.

The technique is to add “+” to the end of the Bitly URL to see whats behind it without clicking on it. A couple of individuals emailed me to ask if the that worked with other URL reducing services. If you see it elsewhere, it has been utilized without authorization.

Last week I wrote
The trick is to include “+” to the end of the Bitly URL to see whats behind it without clicking on it. A few people emailed me to ask if the that worked with other URL shortening services.
TinyURLs..