It used to be a problem when short links (tinyurl, bit.ly and other services that shorten URLs) were first introduced. People would hide affiliate links, goatse pictures and all sorts of stuff using them. We trained ourselves just not to click on those links and they quickly dissipated when people learned we didn’t trust them. Now with the advent of Twitter and other services that similarly limit posting size, shortened urls have surged in popularity. They often offer cool features like stats tracking (see my post about Understanding Bit.ly) and make it easier to share URLs that are really long or have lots of gobbly-gook in them.
The increasing problem with these URLs is that spammers and the like are once again using these URLs and abusing our trust of them. Here are some quick and easy tips to KNOW for sure where that URL is going.
Turn on TweetDeck’s short URL preview
TweetDeck offers a built in preview feature that lets you see the title of the page and the actual URL that it’s sending you to. You can turn this feature on by clicking the settings icon and finding the setting (on the first tab) that’s labeled “Show preview information for short URLs”
Once you’ve enabled that option you’ll see a screen like this: 
whenever you click on a short URL that TweetDeck recognizes. (Doesn’t do anything if it doesn’t recognize the service)
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Grab the LongURLPlease bookmarklet
If you use Twitter from the web interface one of the best ways to see the long version of a URL before clicking it is the “LongURLPlease” bookmarklet. Just drag this sucker [ LongURLPlease ] to your bookmark bar and when you click it, it will convert any short URLs that it recognizes into their long version for you. Or check out the LongURLPlease page to get the bookmarklet or extension.
Grab the LongURLPlease FireFox extension
Another alternative for FireFox users is the LongURLPlease extension. It offers the same features as the bookmarklet mentioned above but also allows you to automatically expand short URLs whenever they’re encountered. You can also follow LongURLPlease on Twitter.
Add a + at the end of bit.ly URLs
If the URL that you’re looking at is a bit.ly URL you can easily see the stats for that URL by just adding a plus “+” at the end of the url.
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Final thought
Showing the long URL is only helpful if you’re careful about what that URL contains. You can further enhance your security by using FireFox or Google Chrome as they both will block most phishing sites for you. Beyond that you can start using OpenDNS which will block most phishing sites for you too. Be vigilant! If you’re not sure if you can trust a link just take a few seconds to ask the person who sent it to you to verify that they sent it. That few seconds and make a difference in the hours of agony and lost time, followers etc that can result from clicking something you’re not sure about. Anytime that you get to a log in page, check the address bar to make sure it’s really the site you expected. Not sure? Type in the URL.
What do you do to stay secure? What advice have you given to friends and family to help them stay safe on the Internet?
