Check shorten URLs

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The fact remains that when you click on a shortened link you don't know where you will end up. Depending on the circumstances, you could subject yourself to an attack for which you are defenseless. And even if you're careful about whose links you click on, you are still trusting those users, and there's a long and shady history of Twitter accounts getting hijacked.

ExpandMyURL.com. It's a web form in which you enter a short URL. The server does the HTTP request and gives you back the site to which it is redirected. Untiny works the same way. Both worked with several services I tested. I found some web pages like ExpandMyURL that were specific to one service, but there's no reason to use them.

ExpandMyUrl.com previews short URLs from shortening services like tinyurl.com, bit.ly and is.gd revealing where they go, so you don't get a nasty surprise when you get there

Firefox users are especially blessed in this software category by several add-ons that help with shortened URLs. PowerTwitter includes URL expansion among with many other features, including link shortening. LongUrlPlease claims to support 73 redirection services in their products including their Firefox add-on. Bit.ly has their own Firefox add-on, but it only works for bit.ly links. What's the point?

LongURL is also one of many services that have an API or scripts you can incorporate into your own programs for expanding short URLs, although it's not a big deal to program it yourself.

http://longurl.org/
Supported Services: tinyurl.com, is.gd, ping.fm, ur1.ca, bit.ly, snipurl.com, tweetburner.com, metamark.net, url.ie, x.se, 6url.com, yep.it, piurl.com, and more!

Even with the ability to see long URLs the burden on users is high to pay attention. For instance, when I tried it the lengthening services only did one redirection, so if you shorten a shortened URL, lengthening it only gets you the first shortened URL.

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/20 ... before.php

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