I don't really use these sort of things, but some people might like these, which beat bit.ly, though one seems to work in conjunction with it
http://j.mp http://o.lyhttp://toas a fast way to generate using these, no need to copy a url then go there and paste - instead, when you're still on the web page you want to shorten, go in the browser address window and just type j.mp/ or o.ly/ or to/ in front of the whole url and press return
I have tested all 3 of these suggestions, and there seem to be problems with at least 2 of them ! :
For example, the URL for this thread becomes
http://j.mp/bmk4OJ which is correct,
but
http://o.ly/iAn takes you to the forum as a whole, not to this specific thread.
The
http://to is quite simply wrong: it does not work from here, but gives an invalid URL report.
I suspect that it should be written as
www.to ( However, that never seems to work, as it tells you over and over that you have entered a wrong security code. )