Best Free URL Link Shrink Service With Statistics & Tracking- Social & Article Marketing

URL Link Shrink & Redirect Services seem to be popping up everywhere, but many are also shutting down just as quickly. These services are a must have when utilizing article marketing, social network/bookmark marketing, and especially when using a service such as twitter where you are limited to the number of characters you can use.
 In the past, TinyUrl has been the most popular service, but when twitter took off, many people scrambled around to find a service with the shortest possible domain.   One of my favorites was Cli.gs because of the statistics offered on your links, but that site is shutting down or being sold.  Unfortunately, that is a big issue with many of these sites.   I have been using a couple of different services lately, but I have been using only one service when I input the link myself.  I use several different twitter services to manage multiple accounts, such as Hootsuite, TwitterDeck, and others.  When using those services, I will usually just go ahead and use their link shrinker, but am finding myself doing it less and less because of the difference in reporting of statistics.  Currently I am using bit.ly for almost all of my basic link shrinking & redirecting needs because they are free and provide ad free statistics that even track and show you when and where your link is mentioned.

There are several different free link shrink and redirect options out there that should fulfill any needs you may have.  The key, in my opinion, is to find one that you understand the interface, has good tracking abilities (if you need that), and has been around for awhile.