Mash123

Firefox only: You never know what you’ll stumble on by clicking innocent-looking links served up by URL shorteners. If you’re unlucky, you’ll get Rickrolled—at worst—well, let’s not go there. Verify Redirect let’s you look at URLs before you leap.

This slick Firefox extension runs quietly in the background as you browse, springing into action only when you click on a shortened URL (or any URL that it recognizes as a redirect). As the page loads, a dialog box displays the URL where you’re headed and gives you the option of continuing or canceling. We’ve seen similar toolshttp://lifehacker.com/52ᐙ39/long-url-please-replaces-shortened-links-with-the-real-thing before, but Verify Redirect should work with external links (say from your Twitter client) and non-URL shortened redirects.

You can tell Verify Redirect to remember web sites you visit regularly so it won’t keep asking. That’s a good thing, because on pages with lots of content, the dialog box might pop up several times before before it finally lets you in. Don’t let that deter you from trying this add-on though; you can easily toggle it on and off via Firefox’s Add-On management window (Tools -> Add-ons).

Verify Redirect also makes a good add-on for browsers used by kids. It won’t prevent children from accessing web sites unintentionally, but it serves as a great reminder for them to double-check they’re visiting the URL they intended.

We’re all about apps and tools that keep us from seeing things that make our eyeballs explode. How do you protect yourself from accidentally tripping into the wrong web site. Share your ideas in the comments.