Why are the query parameters for many websites(MySQL) very cryptic long integers? [closed]

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Consider this URL http://twitter.com/#!/sravfeyn/status/114003158891634689 , why is the query integer so long, if it's a primary key in MySQL data table, and can be started from zero and be auto-incremented? Why should one implement his/her website's queries cryptic like this?Any security reasons?

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It's not for security reasons, it's because there are so many tweets that using an auto increment ID field has reached it's maximum unsigned integer length and may crash some apps built for twitter.

The status ID's are now made up of timestamp and other details.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/12/all-hell-may-break-loose-on-twitter-in-2-hours/

http://engineering.twitter.com/2010/06/announcing-snowflake.html

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There is no lengthening of the number; it is the actual post number. Twitter has millions of post a days so this isn't much of a surprise,.

As you can see, there are also double-digit posts on twitter. I think this is the first one.