Bitly is a convenient tool for developing short URLs to share in location of long URLs. Ive utilized it for several years to create tailored URLs that are easy for my students to type. Sadly, some people utilize Bitly to try to mask URLs to attempt to get you to click dubious links. There is a simple method to see where a Bitly link will take you without having to actually click on the link..
The trick is to simply 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 reveal you the Bitly page on which the reduced 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 exact 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 original URL.

Ive developed 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.