Popular URL shortening site Bitly, has undergone a major redesign, incorporating a number of new features in preparation for what the company calls “a new Bitly.”

Bit by Bitmark

The redesign focuses on giving users more curation features. Central to this experience are ‘bitmarks’, a new bookmarking feature that gives users have the ability to save and retrieve bitmarks using a new search functionality.

Bitmarks can also be curated into bundles that can be collaborated on with friends, and shared via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Analytics

The new design also features improved analytics, allowing users to see how many clicks a shortened link has received, and from which referring site. Clicks can also be measured by region.

Mobile

In addition to the website redesign Bitly also rolled out a new ‘bitmarklet’ Chrome extension and its first ever iPhone app, that allows users to save and share bitmarks on the go.

Backlash

Bitly's redesign has met with some critical reception. The key complaint being that the redesign makes the process of shortening links, the most popular service for which Bitly is used, unnecessarily complicated.

Bitly Responds

Earlier this week Bitly announced on its blog a number of changes in response to the feedback, including simplifying the procedure for link shortening.  The company wrote they are in “the first phase of the evolving product” and would continue to make adjustments.

Whether Bitly's effort to add a full 'bells and whistles' package on to what was essentially a URL shortening service will affect its popularity remains to be seen.