Is this link good?

A number of friends have clicked on a bad link, and then unfortunately had something bad happen (some virus/spyware was installed on their computer.) How can you tell if a link is real/good? A few things to keep in mind:

1. Is the link really what it says it is? Put your mouse over the link. For example, the following link says it's going to http://www.m-w.com. However, if you mouse over it and look at the actual link as indicated near the bottom of your browser, it's actually going somewhere else.

http://www.m-w.com

2. Does the link have a domain name you'd trust?

• To figure out the domain name, look at the right-most portion before the first '/' (while reading from left to right.)
  For example, amazon.com is the domain name in this URL: www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27
  
  
• If the domain is unfamiliar, you may not want to go there:
  www.someplacesketchy.net/deals
  
  
• Some links may look like they go somewhere safe, but don't really:
  www.amazon.purchases.com/todaysdeals
  In the above example, purchases.com is the domain name. NOT amazon.com!

If the link looks sketchy, I'd avoid opening it.

3. I've already warned you about redirecting, shortened URLs.

4. Who sent it to you? A stranger, a friend, a trusted company? Emails from strangers are probably SPAM. You may trust a link from a friend, unless their account has been hacked (or they just don't know it's a bad link.)

5. In what context did you receive the link? Was the link sent to you in a Facebook message, an email, instant message, etc that was (1) short (little or no other text), (2) had no context, (3) general, (4) looks like anyone (or a robot) could have sent it to you, or (5) seemed to come out of no where (you haven't spoken to this person in a while)? If so, beware! The message may not have come from who you thought it came from.