Automate Chrome with OpenCheckedLinks — Quick Setup & Tips

OpenCheckedLinks — A Simple Guide to Batch-Opening Verified URLsOpening many URLs at once is a common need for researchers, journalists, QA engineers, and power users. But opening unchecked links can slow your workflow and expose you to broken pages, redirects, or malicious sites. OpenCheckedLinks is a strategy (and, in many cases, a small tool or script) to batch-open only those links that have already been verified for safety, availability, and relevance. This guide explains why OpenCheckedLinks matters, how to prepare links for safe batch-opening, practical methods and tools for different platforms, step-by-step examples, and best practices to keep the process efficient and secure.

Why use OpenCheckedLinks?

Saves time: Instead of opening each link manually, verified links can be opened in one pass, letting you review content faster.
Reduces risk: Checking links beforehand helps avoid malicious sites and phishing pages.
Improves reliability: Removing broken or redirected links prevents wasted clicks and browser clutter.
Scales workflows: Useful for automated testing, content audits, research, and competitive monitoring.

What “checked” means

A link is “checked” when it has passed one or more automated or manual validation steps such as:

HTTP status check (200 OK vs. 4xx/5xx)
Content-type verification (e.g., text/html vs. binary)
Domain allowlist/blocklist screening
Redirect resolution and final URL verification
Malware/phishing scan (via APIs or local tools)
Manual human review for relevance or sensitivity

High-level workflow

Collect URLs into a list (CSV, text file, spreadsheet, or database).
Run automated checks (HTTP status, content-type, redirects).
Run security scans (optional API or local signature checks).
Filter the list to include only verified links.
Batch-open the filtered list in your browser or automated environment.
Record results and iterate.

Tools and methods by platform

Below are practical options depending on your technical comfort and environment.

Browser extensions

Many browsers support extensions that open multiple tabs from a list or from a selection on a page. Combine with link-checker extensions that validate status codes or run simple safety checks before opening.

Command-line tools (power users)

curl/wget + xargs to test and open links.
Node.js scripts using axios or node-fetch to check status and puppeteer to open or render pages.
Python scripts using requests + asyncio + webbrowser or Selenium for controlled browser automation.

Spreadsheets

Google Sheets or Excel can call external services (Apps Script/Power Query) to test URLs, then produce a filtered list to open via a browser extension or copy-paste.

Dedicated link-checker services/APIs

Use an API that returns status, content-type, and threat score. Combine responses to decide which links to open.

Example implementations

Below are concise examples to illustrate different approaches.

1) Simple shell pipeline (check for 200 OK, then open)

# urls.txt contains one URL per line while IFS= read -r url; do   status=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "$url")   if [ "$status" -eq 200 ]; then     xdg-open "$url" &   # on Linux; use open on macOS   fi done < urls.txt

2) Node.js (check and open in default browser)

// Requires: npm install node-fetch open const fetch = require('node-fetch'); const open = require('open'); const fs = require('fs'); (async () => {   const urls = fs.readFileSync('urls.txt', 'utf8').split(' ').filter(Boolean);   for (const url of urls) {     try {       const res = await fetch(url, { method: 'HEAD', redirect: 'follow' });       if (res.ok && res.headers.get('content-type')?.includes('text/html')) {         await open(url);       }     } catch (e) {       console.error('Error checking', url, e.message);     }   } })();

3) Python async checker with optional Selenium open

# Requires: pip install aiohttp asyncio selenium import asyncio, aiohttp, webbrowser async def check(url, session):     try:         async with session.head(url, allow_redirects=True) as resp:             if resp.status == 200 and 'text/html' in resp.headers.get('content-type', ''):                 return url     except:         return None async def main():     urls = [line.strip() for line in open('urls.txt') if line.strip()]     async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:         tasks = [check(u, session) for u in urls]         good = [r for r in await asyncio.gather(*tasks) if r]     for u in good:         webbrowser.open_new_tab(u) asyncio.run(main())

Best practices and safety tips

Rate-limit checks to avoid appearing as a crawler or getting blocked.
Prefer HEAD requests for faster checks, fall back to GET if HEAD is blocked.
Respect robots.txt and site terms when bulk-opening.
Use a sandboxed browser profile or isolated VM when opening untrusted links.
Cache results to avoid re-checking the same URLs frequently.
When using third-party scanning APIs, be mindful of privacy and costs.

Handling redirects and final destinations

Follow redirects during checks and record the final URL and host.
Verify the final host against your allowlist/blocklist.
If the final content-type differs (e.g., download instead of HTML), skip opening in a browser tab.

Logging and auditability

Keep a simple log with: original URL, final URL, HTTP status, content-type, timestamp, and any security scores.
For repeated workflows, store logs in CSV or a small database for reporting and debugging.

Example use cases

Research: Quickly open all archived sources that passed verification.
QA: Open only pages that are live to test UI changes.
Content audits: Validate links in a site and open only working ones for manual review.
Newsrooms: Rapidly access verified source links during reporting.

Limitations

Automated checks can’t detect all malicious behavior (e.g., drive-by downloads initiated by JS after load).
Some servers block HEAD requests or rate-limit automated clients.
Batch-opening many tabs can strain local resources and browser stability.

Conclusion

OpenCheckedLinks is a practical approach to speed up workflows while reducing risk: validate links first, then open only those that pass your checks. Choose the method that matches your environment and comfort with scripting, and follow safety best practices like sandboxed browsing and rate-limiting. With a small script and a clear checklist, you can turn an unwieldy URL list into a reliable, fast-review process.