>> An immensely valuable service - essentially a manual
>> DNS system :-).

> It does not provide mapping between IP addresses and Host names. It
> just maps a parameter string (in your case "RussellsWeddingPhotos")
> into the web link, stored in the database, and redirects to the link.
> It does not map the link into IP address, becouse that's none of a web
> server business, =A0I'm sure.

All that (hence "manual") but it has the same effect from a user's
point of view - especially from a not overly computer literate users
point of view.  People wanting to remember a photo or similar site
care mainly  about how easy it is to remember,  how well it works and
whether it keeps working.

tinyurl.com has the advantage of inertia (it's been there a long time
and is used by a vast number of people), brevity (getting a good short
memorable to anyone url is vanishingly difficult),  and a degree of
memorability  (he got one).

"Best of all" would be the ability to create and use an address sans
any prefix - eg exclude the bracketed part in
(http://tinyurl.com/)RussellsWeddingPhotos . Trivially easy on an
internal system, "not so easy generally" on the net.

> You can arrange the "immensely valuable service" on almost any web
> host's cheapest plan as it takes almost no resourses.

Yes.
Or, something somewhat approaching it.
"Immense value" is a vector sum of the above points and more.
There is somewhat more to what he does than meets the eye. It's
evolved over time.
The user selectable url is newish. It checks for redundant entries
from the same originator. I'm not sure how "same" is determined or
whether it has time or other limitations (per session, per IP address,
cookie moderated, ...). He provides a preview feature for the
skittish.


   Russell

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