Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. As a registered user I can create customized, reduced URLs that people can actually spell. I utilize these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation since the default URLs offered by those services are incoherent and constantly long..

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been used without consent if you see it in other places. Websites that regularly take my (Richard Byrnes) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive utilized for numerous years. There is an easy way to rapidly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

Applications for Education.
Building great digital citizenship and cyber security skills is something that everybody need to be helping our trainees do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is among the ways that we can assist our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.

There is an easy method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking on the link. The trick is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was.
You can try this technique with a URL that I recently shortened. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you straight to a copy of the slides that I utilized my recent Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my initial presentation URL and see when I produced the reduced URL..
See this brief video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover whats concealed behind a Bitly link..