What’s Hidden Behind a Bitly Link?

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive used for many years. As a signed up user I can develop customized, reduced URLs that people can really 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 always long and incoherent..

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has actually been utilized without permission. Sites that frequently take my (Richard Byrnes) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive used for numerous years. There is an easy method to quickly determine 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.

Not all Bitly users are using them for good reasons. Some people use them to hide dubious links. Thankfully, there is an easy method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking the link. The technique is to merely include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute 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 show you what the original 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 initial presentation URL and see when I created the shortened URL..
View this short video to see how you can utilize the “+” technique to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Applications for Education.
Building great digital citizenship and cyber security abilities is something that everybody ought to be helping our students do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is one of the manner ins which we can help our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber security skills.

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