Bitly is a convenient tool for creating brief URLs to share in place of long URLs. Ive utilized it for several years to create personalized URLs that are simple for my students to type. Unfortunately, some individuals use Bitly to try to mask URLs to try to get you to click on wicked links. Luckily, there is a simple method to see where a Bitly link will take you without having to really click the link..
The technique is to merely add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include 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 show 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 try the same link however include “+” to the end of it so it checks out like this.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2+ you will go to the Bitly page where I shortened my initial URL.

Ive developed a number of short video presentations 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.