If you don't, you use facebook right? Of course!
Well, my point is that almost everyone uses some social network from "a lot" to "frequently".
I, like everyone who's very well familiar with many social networks, have noticed the not-so-few amount of shortened links (e.g bit.ly.blahblah, etc).
If you are also wise (I assume you are because you're reading this article on how to stay safe), you know that a majority of links from anonymous (and sometimes known) sources cannot be trusted, especially when the landing page is hidden.
As a security measure, you should almost always expand shortened links before clicking on them so you don't open a link and make this face:
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| IMAGE SOURCE |
Here are 5 url (link expanders) to help you see the full version of any shortened links:
1. Where does this link go (http://wheredoesthislinkgo.com/)
2. Long Url (http://longurl.org/)
3. URL X-ray (http://urlxray.com/) //Nice Name :D
4. Link Peeler (http://linkpeelr.appspot.com/): Also comes with a Google Chrome extension that shows the full version of a shortened link when you hover over it.
5. Sucuri Link Checker (http://tools.sucuri.net/?page=tools&title=check-url)
Note:
If you use twitter, a common sense approach to expanding links is this:
By default, twitter expands most shortened links if you hover over it.
So next time you want to click on a link, take a second, hover over the link and see whether it looks valid (in that context) or not.
I may have missed some other great services out there, so drop your favorite url-expander in the comments below.
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