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

Not all Bitly users are using them for excellent reasons. Some individuals utilize them to hide nefarious links. There is a simple way to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking on the link. The trick is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will reveal you what the initial link was..
You can attempt this technique with a URL that I just recently reduced. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you directly to a copy of the slides that I used my recent Intro to Teaching History With Technology webinar. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL+ will lead you to the Bitly page where you can see my original discussion URL and see when I created the shortened URL..
View this brief video to see how you can use the “+” technique to discover out whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber security skills is something that everybody need to be helping our students do. Revealing them little tips like this one to prevent clicking on suspicious links is among the methods that we can help our trainees build their digital citizenship and cyber safety skills.

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive utilized for several years. As a registered user I can develop custom, reduced URLs that individuals can in fact spell. I utilize these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides discussion because the default URLs supplied by those services are always long and incoherent..

This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been utilized without approval if you see it elsewhere. Websites that routinely steal my (Richard Byrnes) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.