Thursday, August 7, 2014

With URLs, Shorter Doesn't Mean Safer!

Anyone who has used Twitter and knows the importance of each character in a 140-character limit knows about shortened URLs.  But, why would anyone ever want to make a url LONGER?

Well, I've come across this concept a bit during my exploration into increased internet security.  And not only am I going to share when you should make a URL longer, I'll give you an easy way to do it!

You've probably all been there.  You get an email from a friend, coworker or maybe someone you haven't talked to in awhile.  The message is short and a bit cryptic, of course, with a link.  The link is usually just as cryptic, likely shortened so it does not give away what it will link you to.  My gut in this situation is typically to STAY AWAY!  Clicking those links can invite malware or a virus to your computer or device. But we click on shortened links every day in Twitter, Facebook or on our favorite sites.  You may have even used one to get to THIS page!

Here's where the URL lengthener comes in!  LongURL.com is a web tool that gives you the original form of any shortened link.  So you will see that the shortened link for this page (bit.ly/1kpFtlM) is the Social Media Diva blog, (http://divaofsocialmedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/with-urls-shorter-doesnt-mean-safer.html).

Almost like a reverse phone number lookup, you will get the original link to any shortened link and can see that without putting your computer at harm!  

So if you can't resist the urge to stay away, check out longurl.com and stay safe!

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