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08 Aug 2009

Reveal the Real Long URL behind the Masked Shortened URL

Posted in Cool Websites By Rohit Sane

Twitter has given rise to a lot of URL shortening services, which take the long URLs as input and shorten it with a 301 redirection which is Search Engine friendly. Thus, after visiting the Short URL we land up on the original page with the Long URL. Even though this services help to decrease the length of the URL, there are a few mishaps which may take place.

If a long URL of a web page containing malicious content is shortened, then people might not know the exact landing page where they may reach after clicking on the Short URL. This might cause problems and misuse of these URL shortening services.

So, it is actually necessary to check the Long URLs of the the Shortened ones before visiting them even though most of us find it time consuming to do so. So, I will tell you three services which will help you do this very fast!

Untiny is a service which provides various Add-Ons and Bookmarklets to help you reveal or extract the long URL from the short one. Its extremely easy to use and you just need to paste the short URL and click extract. The long URL behind it is revealed and you can visit is just by clicking on it.

Preview URL is an online utility which helps you get the Long URL along with the thumbnail of the Landing page. So, you get the rough idea about what the page will actually contain. If the page appears fishy, you may avoid visiting it.

Real-URL is a similar utility, which also shows the Most recently shared Pics with short URL and also the Most shared videos on Twitter and YouTube.

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Rohit Sane

  • http://www.miscbytes.com Christie

    I’ll definitely try those, because to me, *fast* is the key. If it’s going to be a lot of trouble, then I just won’t bother with one of those shortened links unless it’s from someone I trust. These services, especially Preview URL with the thumbnail and Real-URL with even shared pictures/videos, give a really good idea of what the site is, and fast. Thanks!

  • http://www.gregellison.net Greg Ellison

    I never knew there were sites to check out the short-urls. I already bookmarked Preview URL. Thanks for the tips. Greg Ellison

  • http://www.extremejohn.com Extreme John

    This will come in very handy thank you.

  • http://pureideas.co.cc/ pureideas

    absolutely true ,
    Twitter is really gaining popularity and getting hot shot on security.

  • http://technobuz.com sham

    Its always good to decode the tiny URL cos sometimes it might make us land up in some malicious page..

  • http://www.hellboundbloggers.com/about S.Pradeep Kumar

    Hey also try this site u.nu ! It is the current shortest URL service I guess.. wonderful service.. just add ? to the end of the url and u will get the stats ! ;)

    Nice sharing BTW ! :D

  • http://techgenuine.com Ricky

    I am using preview url to check the links once in a while. Thanx for sharing the information.

  • http://releasecandidate.info Release Candidate

    I was not knowing about it! Thanks for the info. Because of increasing popularity of Twitter, these services will help us a lot in future.

  • ksbnok

    @S.Pradeep Kumar previously it was not possible to have a word less than 3 letters before “.com” n after “http://” in the domain name but now-a-dayz it is… really nice sharing…

    cheers…

  • http://jacobyap.com Jacob Yap

    Cool, never know can reveal the original link. Thanks for sharing.

  • http://teamnirvana.com/blog Suneel

    Shortened URLs have surely turned out like a boon to malicious code writers. The masking is done by any damn URL shortening sites and CPC rises to the sky.

  • http://www.hellboundbloggers.com/about S.Pradeep Kumar

    @ ksbnok : Yeah buddy. Innovative thinkings for making short URL services are increasing day-by-day ! ;)

  • http://bloggermaniacs.com/ shraqs

    Preview URL is my choice. Thanks for the list.

  • http://www.shoutmeloud.com Blogspot to wordpress

    It’s always a good idea to check the short URL before opening it…
    Until unless its coming from a well known source..
    You never know when you will end up giving your password to anyone by clicking on such links….

  • http://www.lemback.com Marlene

    I’m always hesitant to open tiny url. I only do it if I know that the twitting person is a blogger. Oh, I like that Preview Url. Have bookmarked it. Thanks for sharing your finds.

  • http://greatestreviews.net/ Agent 001

    Nice resource. I sometime become hesitant clicking short links. This would be helpful.

  • http://techfreakstuff.com Rohit Sane

    Good that you find the resources useful! Keep in touch.

  • http://choosyinfo.com Ruchi

    Thanks for sharing preview URL , yet i used to open tiny URL of person whom I know . Now I can know the original link also. Keep posting such things.

  • http://www.myairapplications.com/ Taufiq Hasan

    Hi, do you know shorten URL service that give a trackback or ping to our post?

  • http://techfreakstuff.com Rohit Sane

    @Taufiq : I think bit.ly is SEO friendly and it does this functions. I am not very sure though.