Link Inspector is a pre-click review tool. It gathers evidence about a public HTTP or HTTPS destination so you can make a better decision before sharing or visiting it. It does not certify that a page is safe, and a clean result is not a substitute for checking the sender, the final domain, and the request the page makes of you.
What Link Inspector reviews
For a reachable public URL, the inspection can return the normalized input, resolved final URL, HTTP status and content type, page title and description, Open Graph sharing metadata, a screenshot, the redirect-chain hops, and an HTTPS and certificate summary. It can also include a provider safety verdict. Signed-in users on an entitled plan may receive optional AI-assisted commentary.
Those fields answer different questions. The redirect chain shows whether a familiar link crosses an unexpected host. The title, metadata, and screenshot help you compare what the page says with what you expected. HTTPS information describes the connection to the resolved destination; it does not establish that the organization behind the page is trustworthy.
A practical pre-publish workflow
- Paste the exact public URL you intend to share, including campaign parameters.
- Compare the resolved final host with the organization or landing page you expected.
- Review every redirect hop for an unrelated domain, an HTTP downgrade, or obsolete tracking infrastructure.
- Compare the title, description, share metadata, and screenshot with the approved campaign asset.
- Stop and investigate when the result is unsafe, inconclusive, incomplete, or simply inconsistent with the sender's context.
Limits you should account for
- Results are a point-in-time observation: a destination or redirect can change after inspection.
- Some results are partial: login walls, bot controls, client-rendered pages, missing metadata, and non-HTML files may prevent a complete preview.
- Provider checks are signals: reputation systems can miss new threats or flag benign pages. An unavailable denylist is treated as inconclusive in the detailed safety pipeline, not as safe.
- A screenshot is not execution proof: it cannot tell you that a download, form, credential prompt, or later interaction is harmless.
- Usage limits apply: anonymous inspection is subject to a daily limit, and LLM-backed commentary follows the Go-or-higher AI Assist entitlement.
Use the result as evidence, not permission
If a link asks for credentials, payment, a download, or urgent action, verify it through a separate trusted channel even when the preview looks normal. Start with Link Inspector, then report suspicious ShortURL.bot links through the Help Center.