Ive created a couple of brief video demonstrations of how this trick works. This is the Instagram video that I made about it. This is the YouTube video that I made about it.

Bitly is a convenient tool for creating short URLs to share in location of long URLs. Ive utilized it for years to produce customized URLs that are easy for my trainees to type. Regrettably, some people use Bitly to try to mask URLs to attempt to get you to click on wicked links. There is an easy way to see where a Bitly link will take you without having to really click on the link..
The trick is to merely add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the original URL was. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will reveal you what the initial link was..

You can try this with my Bitly link of.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2 which will take you to the registration page for my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter (.
https://practicaledtech.com/weekly-newsletter/). If you attempt the same link but add “+” to the end of it so it reads like this.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2+ you will go to the Bitly page where I reduced my initial URL.