This post initially appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. It has actually been utilized without authorization if you see it in other places. Sites that frequently take my (Richard Byrnes) work consist of CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. There is an easy way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without actually clicking on the link. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was.

Applications for Education.
Structure good digital citizenship and cyber safety abilities is something that all of us need to be helping our trainees do. Revealing them little suggestions like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is one of the manner ins which we can help our trainees develop their digital citizenship and cyber safety skills.

Not all Bitly users are utilizing them for good reasons. Some individuals use them to hide wicked links. There is a simple way to quickly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. The technique is to merely add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was. That will then reveal you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will reveal you what the original link was..
You can try 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 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 discussion URL and see when I produced the shortened URL..
View this short video to see how you can utilize the “+” technique to discover out whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive utilized for several years. As a signed up user I can produce custom-made, reduced URLs that people 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 offered by those services are incoherent and always long..