Reveal the Original Long URL behind the Masked Shortened URL

Reveal the Real Long URL behind the Masked Shortened URL

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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Filed Under: Cool Websites

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Comments (20)

Christie

August 8th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

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!

Greg Ellison

August 8th, 2009 at 7:52 pm

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

Extreme John

August 8th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

This will come in very handy thank you.

pureideas

August 9th, 2009 at 5:22 am

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

sham

August 9th, 2009 at 11:02 am

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

S.Pradeep Kumar

August 9th, 2009 at 12:20 pm

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 !

Ricky

August 10th, 2009 at 9:03 am

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

Release Candidate

August 10th, 2009 at 7:12 pm

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

August 10th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

@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…

Jacob Yap

August 10th, 2009 at 9:52 pm

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

Suneel

August 11th, 2009 at 11:37 am

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.

S.Pradeep Kumar

August 12th, 2009 at 5:28 am

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

shraqs

August 12th, 2009 at 8:54 am

Preview URL is my choice. Thanks for the list.

Blogspot to wordpress

August 12th, 2009 at 6:52 pm

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….

Marlene

August 15th, 2009 at 1:49 am

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.

Agent 001

August 17th, 2009 at 11:54 pm