What’s Hidden Behind a Bitly Link?

Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that Ive utilized for numerous years. As a registered user I can produce custom-made, reduced URLs that people can really spell. I use these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation because the default URLs offered by those services are constantly long and incoherent..

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive utilized for lots of years. There is an easy way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking on the link. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was.

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been used without approval if you see it somewhere else. Sites that regularly steal my (Richard Byrnes) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Not all Bitly users are utilizing them for excellent reasons. Some people utilize them to conceal dubious 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 just include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly rather of to whatever the original URL was. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will show you what the initial link was..
You can try this technique with a URL that I recently reduced. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you straight 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 brief video to see how you can utilize the “+” trick to discover out whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber safety abilities is something that everybody should be assisting our students do. Revealing them little tips like this one to prevent clicking suspicious links is one of the methods that we can help our students develop their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.

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