bit.ly decides link shortening isn't their main gig

[bill]

I'm a bit.ly user. Possibly a soon-to-be-former bit.ly user. I've used their API on a ton of sites and services to shorten my links into their j.mp domain (because I remember when Libya threatened to curtail use of the .ly domain)  They had great stats for links. They had one purpose, and did a good job just shortening links and keeping stats.

Today I open up Bitly.com, and see that they've tried to turn the entire service into an SNS. Oh great. How do I shorten links now? I had to dig around the site to figure out where they hid the link shortener.

In my perusal of the site I discover that they make your link history Public by default. What's up with that?! I shorten links for a number of different jobs and clients on the same bit.ly account. There's no way I want everyone to be able to figure out what else I've shortened! This just has FAIL written all over it.

I'm bummed because they ran a good service. Now I'm on the lookout for another link shortener service with decent stats...or should I just look into making my own. Any suggestions?

[Gurtie]

don't they all make it public, if you dig around enough?

as, unfortunately, would your own one unless you added a load of random url's as well so no one could find all the links you'd created.

p'raps we need a core shortener

[bill]

don't they all make it public, if you dig around enough?

Maybe they did, but it wasn't as blatant or easily discoverable as it is now. Everyone now has a public profile page that chronologically lists everything you've ever used bitly to link to. ex. https://bitly.com/u/seomoz  https://bitly.com/u/dannysullivan
If you're using one bitly account for multiple clients that might not be cool. Maybe I'm overreacting, but this just rubs me the wrong way.

Regardless, it's now a huge PITA to manually create a shortened link with their service. Several clicks and dialog boxes later I did finally get my shortened link. They are now pushing you to use their website to post links from...

p'raps we need a core shortener

Hmmmm...

[Brad]

bill, I ran into the same thing with bitly yesterday.  I used to have their bookmarklet up on my browser bar, but I got rid of it after seeing the new bitly . What used to be a one click shortening of a url has now become a 4 click chore with lots of scrolling and an overflow of Web 2.0 bilge.

Anyway I found a URL shortening extension for Opera that lets me choose my service (which won't be bitly) .