Link Shortening Service Alternatives To Bit.ly

Trying to post on Craigslist is getting more and more difficult.  As of November 25th, 2009, 2 of the most popular link shortening services, Bit.ly and tinyurl.com are now blacklisted.  So I went out to find some new ones to see if I could find one that still works. . . and I did.

Backstory:
URL shortening services were initially popular because web addresses started to get long and links would break when sent in an email. However, as microblogging services like Twitter have become popular, an increasing number of services and applications, including tracking & metrics, have been added to the basic URL shortening features.

Service	Customizable URL	Tracking	301 Redirect	Unique Features
tinyurl.com	Yes	No	Yes	Toolbar button
cli.gs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Stats are private, real time and very detailed, geotarget URLs based on country of visitor, bookmarklet.
zi.ma	Yes	Yes	Yes	Bulk URL shortening, registration not required for stats, download stats to CSV, bookmarklet, “popular” links page
bit.ly	Yes	Yes	Yes	Saves copy of page linked to, tracks “conversations”, Twitter search fo uses of shortened URL, bookmarklet, import to Google spreadsheets
twurl.nl (aka tweetburner)	No	Yes	No	Most popular items linked in last hour, bookmarklet, built in to Twhirl
is.gd	No	No	Yes	Really bleeping short URLs, bookmarklet, Firefox plugin, built in to Twhirl
snipurl.com (aka Snurl Snipr Sn.im)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Popular snips, snip search, RSS feed for snips, export to Excel, claim snips before you registered, edit snips
poprl.com	No	Yes	No	Most POPular links, top domains, public stats, search, must register with Twitter account – boo
ad.vu (aka adjix)	No*	Yes	No	Optional ads that share revenue, scheduled Tweeting, *use your own domain name as the link URLs, bookmarklet, option to use ad.vu
tr.im	Yes	Yes	Yes	Uses Twitter or identi.ca info for login, bookmarklet
budurl.com	Yes	Yes*	No**	Detailed, real time stats (*if you upgrade) this is the only service with fees but there is a free version, **uses 307 redirect

Thanks to TopRankBlog.com for this table of the best URL Link Shortening Services!

Comparison of top 20 [22] Craigslist US marketplaces as to 2004 demographics information.

2004 Demographics:

1. New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
3. Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI
4. Washington-Baltimore-No. Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV
5. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
6. Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
8. Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-NH
9. Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI
10. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL
11. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX
12. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL
13. Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA
14. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
15. Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI
16. Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, OH
17. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
18. St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL
19. Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO
20. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL

CraigsList top markets by percentage of traffic [Alexa.com source]

1. sfbay.craigslist.org 7.6%
2. • newyork.craigslist.org 6.6%
3. • losangeles.craigslist.org 5.6%
4. • seattle.craigslist.org 3.2%
5. • washingtondc.craigslist.org 3.0%
6. • chicago.craigslist.org 2.8%
7. • sandiego.craigslist.org 2.6%
8. • phoenix.craigslist.org 2.6%
9. • boston.craigslist.org 2.5%
10. • atlanta.craigslist.org 2.2%
11. • portland.craigslist.org 2.2%
12. • dallas.craigslist.org 2.1%
13. • lasvegas.craigslist.org 2.0%
14. • orangecounty.craigslist.org 1.9%
15. • miami.craigslist.org 1.7%
16. • denver.craigslist.org 1.6%
17. • post.craigslist.org 1.5%
18. • minneapolis.craigslist.org 1.5%
19. • orlando.craigslist.org 1.4%
20. • austin.craigslist.org 1.3%
21. • sacramento.craigslist.org 1.3%
22. • tampa.craigslist.org 1.3%