Quo Vadis?

When you click a shortened URL, like https://bit.ly/3yuZeRo, do you know where it leads? Probably not. Don't you wish you could tell where a URL leads? All URL redirections, including URL shortening, should be transparent. That is the mission of "Quo Vadis?", which is Latin for "Where are you going?".

Quo Vadis is a web extension that ends the lack of transparency of shortened URLs, by revealing every link in the chain of URL redirections. It allows you to decide whether you actually want to visit the unshortened URL.

First download and install the extension in your web browser. Now, whenever you see a URL that looks funky, just ignore it and move on to something else 🙄. When you still want to know where the link leads, without opening it in your browser, right click the link and select "Quo Vadis?" from the context menu options. Quo Vadis probes the URL you selected. The URL may redirect to a second URL. The second URL may redirect to a third URL. And so on. Quo Vadis follows and displays the complete route of linked 'affiliated' URLs. These are mostly trackers, gathering your data for advertisers in a split second, unseen by you. This route ultimately leads to a URL that is not redirected: the final URL. Seeing the final URL, you can make an informed decision about whether you want to open it, or avoid it.

Each encountered URL is colored:

• Black: Currently being probed.
• Gray: Redirects to another URL (probed next).
• Red: Redirects to an already encountered URL.
• Orange: Returned an error.
• Green: Final URL, no errors, no redirections.

Quo Vadis requires no configuration. Check out https://basa.nl/quovadis/ for more details, and some interesting examples of Quo Vadis results.