Get a Preview of Short URLs before Clicking them

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If you are obsessed with microblogging services like Twitter and Identi.ca, you must be dealing with URL shortening services like TinyURL, Is.gd etc every now and then.

Though services like TinyURL help in reducing the mess and do a really good job in shrinking some really really long URLs, they also cloak the destination URLs which makes the user unaware of where he or she might be heading to.

LongURL Mobile Expander for Firefox simply does the opposite. Just like TinyURL takes a long URL and encodes it into a small one, LongURL for Firefox decodes the already encoded TinyURL and displays the actual destination as a tooltip.

This way users can preview the destination URLs without even clicking on them and decide whether they want to follow it or not. This not only helps them know the real location of the short URL but also saves them from shit load of Internet hoaxes, Rick Rolling videos, and who knows (even viruses and trojans?).

LongURL currently supports a number of URL shortening services e.g. TinyURL, Is.gd, Ping.fm etc.

LongURL for Firefox

  • http://www.itechmax.com Umar

    can we like submit the short url on digg and would it work if the original link/website is banned from there..

  • http://www.sizlopedia.com Dj Flush

    Ah! very unfortunately not!. This technique is old now and Digg officials have taken care of this loop hole.

  • http://www.techtola.com Quakeboy

    you rock man… awesome tool
    saves a lot of time !

  • http://sharysce.blogspot.com sharysce

    Ahh!! very cool!!

  • http:..fresh-perspectives.net pearl

    this should be handy but since when did Mozilla site for firefox add-ons start asking for having an account with them? I went to download and it asked for userid and pwd! I of course did sign up…

  • http://blog.trendmicro.sg/ Internet Threat

    Great article just what I was searching for “How to preview shortened URL's” I created a tinyurl of this page

  • http://blog.trendmicro.sg/ Internet Threat

    Great article just what I was searching for “How to preview shortened URL's” I created a tinyurl of this page