Google launched its own URL shortener goo.gl last December and integrated it with several Google products like Feedburner and Google Toolbar. Today Google announced that they have now made Goo.gl URL shortener public allowing users to create short URLs and track stats for them.

There are several URL shorteners like bit.ly and Twitter’s own t.co URL shortening service, however, Google claims that they are not competing with anyone and are doing this to focus on quality.

Over the past year, Goo.gl has almost near 100% uptime and has added spam and malware detection to the shortened URLs.

Google’s new URL shortening interface can be accessed at goo.gl, where you can create short URLs and also track statistics for them. The shortening service also integrates with your account, so if you have shortened any URLs in the past through Feedburner or through the toolbar, you will be able to track the clicks.

Goo.gl also provides users with click statistics such as which sites the URL was clicked from along with demographic, browser and platform information. Overall, the statistics is pretty detailed, making it a much better short URL tracking tool than the existing ones. However, all the Goo.gl click statistics is public, so anyone can check it as long as they know how to.

For more information on the announcement, visit the Google Social Blog.