Unfortunately, not all Bitly users are using them for excellent factors. Some people utilize them to conceal nefarious links. Fortunately, there is an easy way to quickly determine whats behind a Bitly URL without in fact clicking the link. The technique is to just include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you include the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly instead of to whatever the initial URL was. That will then reveal you the Bitly page on which the reduced URL is hosted and will show you what the original link was..
You can attempt this trick with a URL that I just recently shortened. 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 initial presentation URL and see when I developed the shortened URL..
See this brief video to see how you can utilize the “+” technique to discover whats hidden behind a Bitly link..

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it in other places, it has actually been used without permission. Websites that regularly steal my (Richard Byrnes) work consist of CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.

Bitly is an useful URL shortener that Ive utilized for lots of years. There is a simple method to rapidly identify whats behind a Bitly URL without really clicking on the link. When you include the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead of to whatever the original URL was.

Bitly is a helpful URL shortener that Ive used for many years. As a signed up user I can produce custom, shortened URLs that people can in fact spell. I use these whenever I require to share a link to a Canva or Google Slides discussion because the default URLs offered by those services are always long and incoherent..

Applications for Education.
Building good digital citizenship and cyber safety skills is something that everyone should be helping our students do. Showing them little pointers like this one to avoid clicking on suspicious links is among the manner ins which we can help our trainees construct their digital citizenship and cyber security abilities.