Bitly is a convenient tool for producing short URLs to share in location of long URLs. Ive utilized it for years to create personalized URLs that are easy for my students to type. Unfortunately, some individuals use Bitly to attempt to mask URLs to attempt to get you to click on nefarious links. Luckily, there is an easy way to see where a Bitly link will take you without needing to in fact click on the link..
The technique is to merely add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was. That will then reveal you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will reveal you what the original link was..

Ive produced a couple of short video demonstrations of how this technique works. This is the Instagram video that I made about it. This is the YouTube video that I made about it.

You can attempt 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 try the very same link but include “+” to the end of it so it reads like this.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2+ you will go to the Bitly page where I reduced my original URL.