What’s Hidden Behind a Bitly Link?

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive used for lots of years. There is an easy method to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking on the link. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. As a registered user I can create custom-made, reduced URLs that people can actually spell. I use these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation due to the fact that the default URLs provided by those services are always long and incoherent..

Not all Bitly users are using them for excellent reasons. Some individuals utilize them to conceal nefarious links. There is a simple way to rapidly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking on the link. The technique is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include 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 initial link was..
You can try this trick with a URL that I recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly to a copy of the slides that I used in my current Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my original discussion URL and see when I created the shortened URL..
Watch this short video to see how you can use the “+” trick to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it somewhere else, it has been utilized without consent. Websites that frequently steal my (Richard Byrnes) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that all of us ought to be helping our trainees do. Showing them little ideas like this one to prevent clicking on suspicious links is one of the methods that we can assist our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber safety abilities.

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