Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive utilized for lots of years. There is a simple way to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been used without permission if you see it in other places. Sites that routinely steal my (Richard Byrnes) work consist of CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Applications for Education.
Building great digital citizenship and cyber security skills is something that everyone need to be helping our students do. Revealing them little ideas like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is among the manner ins which we can help our trainees develop their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.

Unfortunately, not all Bitly users are using them for good reasons. Some people utilize them to conceal wicked links. There is a simple way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking on the link. The technique is to just include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the reduced 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 straight to a copy of the slides that I utilized my current Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my initial discussion URL and see when I created the shortened URL..
Enjoy this short video to see how you can use the “+” technique to find out whats concealed behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. As a signed up user I can create custom, reduced URLs that people can in fact spell. I use these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation since the default URLs provided by those services are incoherent and constantly long..