One thing that we are seeing more and more often are links identified by short URLs. These on the surface seem very handy and avoid typing but they hide the real site and it is very easy to hide a malware site behind them by tricking users by actually redirect the user's browser to a site hosting malware. This is easy to do using a popular URL shortening service like TinyURL, Bit.Ly, and many others. For example http://bit.ly/uKClxK is a shortened URL and yes, in this case it is safe to click, you may go ahead...
It is always wise to avoid opening shortened URLs especially in Twitter streams where they are frequently found. BUT is there any way that we can determine the URL to which a shortened URL will redirect your browser before opening the shortened URL? Naturally, otherwise this post would be incomplete.
There are a number of different sites that can help you expand shortened URLs and here are two you can use:
Not a Joomla blog entry this time, but important when web browsing!