[HowTo] Expand Original URL from Shortened URL

You always give a second thought on opening any URL recieved from a non trustworthy source or may be even the people you know because of the trend of malicious links in the internet world these days. We often recieve mails, Facebook posts/messages with shortened URL’s, which make us think twice before we navigate to the link, most of the times such mails or posts are deleted. This article suggests a simple way which will help you get the original URl from the shortened URL, which will aid your decision whether to navigate or not to navigate to the link.

Step 1: Copy the Shortened URL of which you want to find the Original expanded form of. The folowing is the a URL which I shortened in TinyURL for testing purposes.

http://tinyurl.com/7rs925x

Step 2: Now visit KnowURL and paste the shortened URL there. The expanded original URL is then generated.

Step 3: You also have options to Visit the link, do a Virus Scan on the link and get a Direct Share link from KnowURL. The website also offers a Chrome extension and also a Toolbar to access its functionality.