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Earlier today, we pondered what Google and Facebook’s move into the realm of URL shortening might mean for the leader in the space – Bit.ly. While it’s too soon to tell what the long term ambitions of Goo.gl and Fb.me might be, Bit.ly’s not taking the potential threat lying down.

Tonight, the company revealed plans for Bit.ly Pro, a service that lets publishers create their own custom short URLs that use the Bit.ly platform. The company’s also introducing a new real-time dashboard to give publishers a better idea of how and where they’re content is being shared.

Bit.ly explains the move on their blog:

“Users and publishers benefit from the additional transparency that this private-label service provides. When you see a short URL like nyti.ms, you know the destination web site before clicking on the link. The service includes all the bit.ly features users and publishers have come to expect. Placing a simple “+” at the end of any bit.ly link (including these white-label, bit.ly-powered links) takes you to real-time information about that page and how it is being shared: how many people clicked on that particular link, where they came from, and more. For publishers, the new service allows them to keep their brand visible while maintaining access to bit.ly statistics.”

With the Pro service, Bit.ly moves even further ahead of anything Facebook or Google seem to have in mind for the near-term in the short URL space, in addition to locking in some big publishers (AOL, Bing, and HuffPost are among publishers in the private beta program). That, and the fact the service will remain Twitter’s default shortener for the forseeable future, leave little reason to believe that Bit.ly has much to worry about for now.