One of the bigger sources for URL spoofing, malware insertion, and general Internet annoyance can be found in the legions of URL shortening services that exist on today's Web. You can't go three clicks deep on a page without finding some kind of cleverly named way to transform a 108-character URL into an 8-character shortcut. Regardless of the service you personally prefer for all of your URL-shortening needs, one common element remains constant through all of them: When you come across a shortened URL, you have no native way to tell where it is you're going.
The last thing you need is to be sent to some kind of horrific site that compromises your system's security (or, worse, some horrific site that compromises your job security). If you're a fan of the Google Chrome browser--and I bet you are, given that you're reading the Extension of the Week article--you'll definitely want to check out a little add-on called Explode.
This handy little piece of code automatically scans and analyzes URLs within HTML pages that have been shortened by one of the common services out there. Hover your mouse over said shortened URL and you'll be able to see the full URL hyperlink that it represents in the lower-left-hand corner of your browser.
That's all this little extension does, but it's a powerful bit of functionality that's only limited by the services that Explode actually supports. Don't let that stop you from grabbing this extension, though--your system demands it!
Maximum PC picks one new Chrome extension as its favorite of the week each... week. Have a nifty extension that you can't live without? Twitter David Murphy @acererak with your latest suggestions.
Comments are closed on this article
roninnder
March 03, 2010 at 5:54pm
I don't know if it's better or worse that it was you plagiarized your own article from last month rather than someone else's work. On the one hand, at least it isn't really plagiarism, since the original article was presumably written by you. On the other hand though, MaximumPC pays you to write NEW articles each week, so...
TheMurph
March 05, 2010 at 10:56am
I like Explode more -- it dumps the URL (much quicker) into your little toolbar at the bottom of the browser. Just the title of the page appears in the hover-over text, which is an elegant way to see where you're going without having to decipher the URL (as you'd have to do with Expand)
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