3 ms·

Ask HN: Hover over links in email newsletters and see where it redirects to

1 points by bengtan 6y ago

bengtan 6y ago
Author here. I asked this on reddit and wanted to ask here too, but didn't want to post text and attract the 'self post' penalty. So I posted a link instead. But here's the text (from reddit) anyway: ---- Hi, I subscribe to email newsletters which contain hyperlinks. I'd like to be able to hover over a hyperlink and see what the URL is before deciding whether to click on it. However, the hyperlinks are something like this: https://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=84e2ac79f9&e=749d74a805 https://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de8... and I can't easily work out where the hyperlink links to. (FWIW, this link redirects to: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-florida-idUSKBN2A82FV?taid=6021cab1d3964a0001081cd0&utm_source=Benedict%27s+Newsletter&utm_campaign=05e1fbe6a6-Benedict%27s+newsletter_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4999ca107f-05e1fbe6a6-71266513 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-florida-idUSKBN... ) Is there some way which lets me find out the destination URL without me having to click on it first? I don't like clicking on links in emails without seeing where it leads to. For example, if I can see that it's a dubious looking domain, then I would be more careful in case it's a phishing site. FWIW, I use Gmail so a Gmail specific solution (browser extension?) could work for me. Seeing the link by hovering over it seems natural to me, but I'd consider alternatives too. Thanks all for reading!
ChrisGranger 6y ago
curl and grep can do this from the command line. Just paste your link between the quotes like so: curl --head --location --silent "yourlinkhere" | grep ^Location; https://curl.se/ https://curl.se/
- bengtan 6y ago
  True. I was doing something similar with wget. However, I'm wondering whether there's any automated way to do this. I don't really want to be doing 10-20 keypresses manually for each link.
  - ChrisGranger 6y ago
    Hmm... I've found a couple of add-ons for Firefox but the latter appears broken. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/short-url-expander/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/short-url-exp... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-url-extender/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-url-ex... I also found one for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/expand-url/llnlabdcccdihhemekhhddgbaonclebe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/expand-url/llnlabd... I haven't tried them, so YMMV. Edit: the Chrome one appears broken as well. Sigh. Also, perhaps you could make a command line alias or function for your wget command to drastically reduce the number of keystrokes required.
    - bengtan 6y ago
      That's alright. I wasn't actually expecting that there'd be a ready-made solution since it's quite an obscure use case. Thanks anyway.
      - ChrisGranger 6y ago
        Another work-around: right-click URL, copy, and paste at https://www.getlinkinfo.com/ https://www.getlinkinfo.com/ to get a report about the link including a list of redirects and the site's Google Safe Browsing status.

1 points by bengtan 6y ago

Author here. I asked this on reddit and wanted to ask here too, but didn't want to post text and attract the 'self post' penalty. So I posted a link instead. But here's the text (from reddit) anyway: ---- Hi, I subscribe to email newsletters which contain hyperlinks. I'd like to be able to hover over a hyperlink and see what the URL is before deciding whether to click on it. However, the hyperlinks are something like this: https://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=84e2ac79f9&e=749d74a805 https://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de8... and I can't easily work out where the hyperlink links to. (FWIW, this link redirects to: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-florida-idUSKBN2A82FV?taid=6021cab1d3964a0001081cd0&utm_source=Benedict%27s+Newsletter&utm_campaign=05e1fbe6a6-Benedict%27s+newsletter_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4999ca107f-05e1fbe6a6-71266513 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-florida-idUSKBN... ) Is there some way which lets me find out the destination URL without me having to click on it first? I don't like clicking on links in emails without seeing where it leads to. For example, if I can see that it's a dubious looking domain, then I would be more careful in case it's a phishing site. FWIW, I use Gmail so a Gmail specific solution (browser extension?) could work for me. Seeing the link by hovering over it seems natural to me, but I'd consider alternatives too. Thanks all for reading!

ChrisGranger 6y ago

curl and grep can do this from the command line. Just paste your link between the quotes like so: curl --head --location --silent "yourlinkhere" | grep ^Location; https://curl.se/ https://curl.se/

bengtan 6y ago
True. I was doing something similar with wget. However, I'm wondering whether there's any automated way to do this. I don't really want to be doing 10-20 keypresses manually for each link.
- ChrisGranger 6y ago
  Hmm... I've found a couple of add-ons for Firefox but the latter appears broken. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/short-url-expander/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/short-url-exp... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-url-extender/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-url-ex... I also found one for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/expand-url/llnlabdcccdihhemekhhddgbaonclebe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/expand-url/llnlabd... I haven't tried them, so YMMV. Edit: the Chrome one appears broken as well. Sigh. Also, perhaps you could make a command line alias or function for your wget command to drastically reduce the number of keystrokes required.
  - bengtan 6y ago
    That's alright. I wasn't actually expecting that there'd be a ready-made solution since it's quite an obscure use case. Thanks anyway.
    - ChrisGranger 6y ago
      Another work-around: right-click URL, copy, and paste at https://www.getlinkinfo.com/ https://www.getlinkinfo.com/ to get a report about the link including a list of redirects and the site's Google Safe Browsing status.