Unfortunately, not all Bitly users are using them for great reasons. Some individuals utilize them to conceal dubious links. Thankfully, there is an easy method to rapidly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking the link. The trick is to just include 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 shortened URL is hosted and will show you what the original link was..
You can try this trick with a URL that I recently reduced. Bit.ly/ THWTAPRIL will lead you straight to a copy of the slides that I utilized in 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..
Enjoy this brief video to see how you can use the “+” technique to learn whats concealed behind a Bitly link..

Bitly is a handy URL shortener that Ive used for many years. There is a simple way to rapidly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly rather of to whatever the initial URL was.

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

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

Applications for Education.
Structure excellent digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that everybody ought to be assisting our students do. Revealing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is one of the methods that we can assist our trainees construct their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.