Say you are sitting inside the office cubicle and get an email or a twitter alert from an old college friend that goes something like this:
"Hey! This website is cool, check it out - http://tinyurl.com/161."
You are tempted to click the link but the problem is that you have no clue if that TinyURL link will transport you to some safe-for-work website or not.
Now if you don’t want to get into an embarrassing situation but still would like to check out websites that are redirected through TinyURL, here’s a simple trick:
Go to tinyurl.com and enable the preview feature. This will set a cookie in your browser that will prevent TinyURL from automatically redirected you to the main site - it will only display the underlying web address but won’t take you there.
The other option is that you add the word "preview" to the main URL itself (tinyurl.com/161 => preview.tinyurl.com/161) - use this if you want to check for safe URLs occasionally else the previous trick is better.
Related: TinyURL for Sharing Adult NSFW Links
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/favorites/click-tinyurl-addresses-without-embarrassing-situations/3020/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
This will help for sure, mostly on twitter people do that and really we think twice before opening that link.
Written by Siddharth on 04.19.08
Thanks for the tip, particularly if in a bit of a rush and have several emails to sift through. Perhaps some email programs have a preview function (or a add on)that can readily display the site’s real address…
Written by pcsourcepoint on 04.19.08
Thanks, I’m the same with the Twitter links. Never sure where you’re going to end up and especially for the work environment these days, you just can’t risk it. This is a great way to make sure you’re not going to end up in trouble.
Written by Janelle on 04.19.08
Thanks Amit for the nice trick…
Written by Sree Prakash on 04.20.08
Hi amit, this tip is great, now i can see the TinyURL, you always supply me answers to anything. Good job bro.
Written by DJYano on 04.20.08
Nice tip! I wonder if the other “URL shrinking” services have this feature…
Definitely helps for Twitter!
Written by Zuberr from FusionFoot on 04.21.08
Nice Post. This will definitely help many people as most people either ignore links of tinyurl as they dont know what site will be opened or they just click it without knowing whats in it.
This is a really a great tip to make sure that you’re not going to end up in trouble.
Written by Milan Chheda on 04.21.08