All the shortened urls around us. They simplify and fix one of the ugliest aesthetic aspects of the internet (those endless addresses are horrible to share), but, on the other hand, they can also be used to confuse users and lead them to places they would be better off not going. You want to know how to decipher those shortened addresses to navigate more securely? Keep reading.
What is a web address shortener?
Basically, they are services that are responsible for transforming a url into another web address that is much easier to remember or share. It also serves to avoid giving too many details of a web address, for example, to save characters on social networks (Twitter already does this automatically) or simply to have a more fun and completely personalized one. Be that as it may, the final function of that shortened address is to take you to another, so it is simply an intermediate step until it takes you to a final destination that you do not know when you click on the shortened link.
Can I know what I am going to visit before clicking on a shortened link?
That's what this article is about. Today we are going to show you some tools and some methods that will help you to be aware of this type of links, since if they catch you off guard they could lead you to websites infected with malware and others with bad intentions. After all, moderate and responsible browsing is key to keeping your computer free of viruses and other types of attacks, so these recommendations will come in handy to keep everything under control.
A very useful service completely free is unshorten.link. As its name clearly indicates, it is in charge of undoing a shortened link to show you the final result of the web to which it will send you as a destination. It is a completely free tool that is based on a website in which we must enter the mysterious link in its text box. It is compatible with countless shorteners, so you will hardly come across any indecipherable ones.
In addition, there an extension for Chrome that will help you decipher URLs quickly and easily, so it could be a useful tool to keep in mind if you tend to deal with a lot of links of this type. Unshorten.link has paid versions that allow more options, such as having a link history, web preview options and other details more designed for companies and users who manage a large number of links per day. In any case, with the free version you will have the envelope for what you are looking for.
Another fairly simple option that you can use is related to the links of the service Bitly. This other link shortening service has a very useful integrated tool that offers full transparency to the user in case they want to know more about the shortened link. Enough with insert the character “+” at the end of each URL to break down all the details of the link. Thanks to this hidden menu we will be able to know data such as the original URL and the number of clicks it has had in the last hours.
There are many similar tools out there to get the same results, so feel free to use whatever works best for you. We leave you a list with different services in charge of deciphering and recovering original URLs from shortened addresses.