How-To Geek
Unshorten.it! Unpacks Shortened URLs and Provides Safety Rating
Shortened URLs sure are convenient and compact but they hide the destination URL. Unshorten.it! is a free Chrome/Firefox extension that not only shows you the full URL but will even give you a safety rating–no need to click blindly again.
Install the extension for Chrome or Firefox and then, when you come across a shortened URL, simply right click on it and click “Unshorten this link” to see both the unpacked URL and a safety rating provided by Web of Trust and HPHosts.
Unshorten.it! is a free extension, available for both Chrome and Firefox.
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Comments (6)
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 11/16/12
Its a shame that these URL shorteners don’t take you to a preview by default.
So long as the default is to go straight to the shortened URL, they will be exploited.
srsly.tho !
Please explain.
I never use shortened url as I am in the dark and not sure what happens if used.
Much obliged.
How does one know that it is a shortened URL
Thank god this exists! I almost fell for a Link that “let’s you ban a Kongregate account” Which really was that “Youareanidiot” Website (It hogs the CPU by opening a dozen copies of it’self and moves them wildly across the screen, until lag crashes your computer.)
Ps: The link was given to someone else, not me, i told them not to visit it so they won’t crash their computer
I put this script in my .bashrc on linux to use curl and sed to return the actual URL. Now I can just type “resolveurl ” on the command line and it returns the actual url. It doesn’t get the help of web of trust but at least I know where I’m going.
https://gist.github.com/4112518