Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. There is a simple method to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has been utilized without authorization if you see it elsewhere. Websites that regularly take my (Richard Byrnes) work consist of CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Not all Bitly users are utilizing them for excellent reasons. Some individuals utilize them to hide dubious links. Fortunately, there is a simple method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking the link. The technique is to just 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 show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will reveal you what the initial link was..
You can try this technique with a URL that I recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly to a copy of the slides that I used 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 presentation URL and see when I created the reduced URL..
View this short video to see how you can utilize the “+” trick to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. As a signed up user I can produce custom, reduced URLs that people can in fact spell. I utilize these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides discussion due to the fact that the default URLs provided by those services are constantly long and incoherent..

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that everyone ought to be assisting our students do. Revealing them little suggestions like this one to prevent clicking on suspicious links is among the ways that we can assist our students develop their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.