Tiny boxes

Thing Nine: URL shorteners

It seems like it was made perfect for Twitter, but I have seen TinyURL around for a while and always wondered how it worked and whether users got any sort of feedback from TinyURL.

I see in the Wikipedia entry that there are some concerns such as link rot and privacy issues, but I don't see my current use being subject to these concerns. Link rot implies you expect a link to be good for a long time, but seems like the use of a shortened URL is more for something temporary anyway. And privacy? You don't sign in to an account for TinyURL so what are they tracking anyway? My IP addresses, they're not just mine and what about those using public workstations?