Had a reason to use such a service recently and didn't like what I saw happened to bit.ly (looks like you have to sign up for an account now). I discovered this cool site (link below) that even allows you to customize and even acquire personal statistics of folks that click the link. No ads; that's a big deal for me. Though I would share it. Maybe you guys have a cool one too that you use.

http://www.is.gd/

i use tinyurl.com once in a while