How to track url redirects in the browser?

Question

When I type http://example.com/load/ in my browser and press ENTER, this website redirects me to http://example.com/load/1/, from there to http://example.com/load/2/ and then I finally landed on http://example.com/load/3/.

These redirection happens at the website end, I am not aware where I am going. But I finally landed on this URL: http://example.com/load/3/.

I want to track all the URLs my browser sees. I am not seeing it in my history as its redirect at website end. Is there any firefox addon or some tool which can track this for me?

Answer 1

Edited: It is now a decade later and there's a better way to do this

1. goto https://deref.link/
2. paste in the url in quetion.
3. hit enter.
4. read the results on the right hand side.

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original 2011 answer

1. Install FireBug ¹

2. open firebug

3. goto the net tab

4. click on the "persist" option

5. enter your url

6. watch the list of urls fetched change. you'll see something like this for your example:

   http://example.com/load/ 302 Moved temporarily
   http://example.com/load/1/ 302 Moved temporarily
   http://example.com/load/2/ 302 Moved temporarily
   http://example.com/load/3/ 200 OK

If you select one of those and open the twisty next to ti you can get the headers which will show you exactly what was requested and what the response was. IN particular you want to look at the Location header on the responses, as that tells your browser what to go load instead.

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Footnotes

1. Or use any other form of devtools for your favorite browser.

Answer 2

Now, when FireBug is integrated into developer tools you may enable persistent logs by next steps:

1. Open DevTools (F12)
2. Go into Toolbox options (forth icon from right top)
3. Find Common preferences section
4. Enable persistent logs
5. Observe network requests and responses under the Network tab

Screenshot:

UPD
I update by FF to v61. In this version configuration slightly different:

1. Open DevTools (F12)
2. Enable Persists Logs

UPD
For newer version of FF, this options are at settings:

Answer 3

If you don't want to install firebug, then you can use the Redirect Tracing Tool

Answer 4

Also you can use https://redirectinspector.com/ or other similar product with additional features - like trace redirects from different device types or from different countries (it's very usefull for testing CPA links etc...)

Answer 5

redirectdetective.com not works with SSL connection (https://) but i have find: WhereGoes? - A tool for tracing the redirect path of URLs.

Answer 6

Since there was no answer for IE, the trick is to unselect "Clear entries on redirect"

Answer 7

just do wget on that URL and you will see the redirect URL in the command-line.