Bitly is a hassle-free tool for developing short URLs to share in place of long URLs. Ive used it for years to produce personalized URLs that are easy for my students to type. Regrettably, some individuals utilize Bitly to try to mask URLs to try to get you to click on wicked links. There is a simple way to see where a Bitly link will take you without having to actually click on the link..
The trick is to simply include 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 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 try the exact same link however include “+” to the end of it so it reads like this.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2+ you will go to the Bitly page where I shortened my initial URL.

Ive created a number of short 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.