Sadly, not all Bitly users are using them for excellent reasons. Some people utilize them to hide wicked links. Fortunately, there is an easy method to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The trick is to just add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly rather of to whatever the original URL was. That will then reveal you the Bitly page on which the reduced URL is hosted and will reveal you what the initial link was..
You can attempt this trick with a URL that I just recently reduced. 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..
Enjoy this short video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover whats concealed behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive utilized for many years. There is a simple way to rapidly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking on the link. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

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

Applications for Education.
Structure good digital citizenship and cyber security abilities is something that all of us should be helping our trainees do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking suspicious links is one of the ways that we can assist our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. As a registered user I can produce custom-made, shortened URLs that individuals can really spell. I use these whenever I need to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides presentation due to the fact that the default URLs provided by those services are always long and incoherent..