Since the popularity of Twitter started to rise and the 140 characters mania began, there has been an outburst of Url shortening services which allow you to sqeeze a long url in the given limited space. There are many url shortening services out there which are both free and easy to use. There is no doubt, that till services like Twitter are there, these url shortening services are no where to go.
Moreover, mechanisms like these let us turn ugly long urls into shorter ones which are easy to manage and are rememberable also. On the other hand, there are several scripts available which let you shorten urls when installed on a server that you manage. So you own the service and it can be used for either personal, public or commercial use. Many popular websites like friendfeed, gigaom, digg etc already use such methods to easily distribute their content in digital as well as print format.
If you are looking to create a similar service for yourself, check out these scripts that we have compiled together.

Kissa.Be
Download Kissa.be here (no longer supported)

Shorty
Shorty needs PHP 4+, MySQL 3.23+, and Apache 1.2+ to run on a server. With Shorty, you’ll get a full blown admin panel from where you can control all your shortened links. When shortening links, you can either create a random url or provide custom keywords for the url. Within the admin panel, you can orgranize, edit short urls and also get a rss feed for them. You can test a demo of Shorty here and Download Shorty here.

Linx
Linx is a tiny (5kb) script based on php. You’ll also need a mysql database to run it. It is created by @harry_jerry and he uses it on his site to create brandable shortened urls. You can see how it works on the Linx site and Download Linx here.

Phurl
Phurl runs on Php and is very flexible when it comes to extendibility. It comes with a very easy installation process and a simple administration panel. Unlike many on the list, it can handle urls without the http:// prefix, so it makes shortening even more quick. It is captcha enabled so users will have to pass a test before creating urls, but this is optional. You can checkout a demo here. Download Phurl.

PhpUrl
As the name implies, PhpUrl is built on Php and needs a mysql database to run. PhpUrl includes a simplistic admin backend that lets you monitor hits and IPs. Custom keywords may be affixed to the url. You can check out PhpUrl in live on this demo. Download PhpUrl.

Url Management
Url Management script is a lot more than just url shortening. You can create a site with features like domain whois, ip pinging, video download options and a lot more of webmaster tools. Easy ad placements are present and the process of installation is not difficult. Have a look at them demo here. Download Url Management.

BrokenScript
BrokenScript as again, is based on php and mysql. Unlike other scripts on the list, the shortened url will not be prefixed with any random characters, but a user defined custom keyword (seed). the script’s size is not big, only 45kb. You can check out a site using this script here and Download Broken Script here.

Tiny Tiny Url
Tiny Tiny Url is a script built on ruby by Leah Culver. If you are familiar with Ruby, you can customize it as you wish. Tiny Tiny Url is available for download from Github, Download here. And also read the release post here.

Url Shrink
Url Shrink is a simple, easy to use and deploy php script for shortening links. It comes with several design templates and you can create one of your own too. One shortcoming of Url shrink is that the user has to enter his email address before shortening links. Bu for people who are ok with this, Url Shrink should be all good for them. Url Shrink Demo. Download Url Shrink.

URL Shortening Script by Kiviniar
Kiviniar.com has brought up a url shortening script which the developer is giving away for free. It’s built on php and needs a mysql database to run. The installation is very easy to follow and you can easily edit the site’s design with css. Download it here.