Facebook Vanity URLs in High Demand
In what seems to be Facebook’s latest move to keep pace with Twitter’s popularity, the social networking giant just unveiled the ability for individuals to own a personalized URL for their profile.
In USA TODAY’s article “Facebook Starts Digital Turf Rush,” it was reported that 500,000 (yes - - half a million) Facebook users had assigned a “name” to their profiles within the first 15 minutes of the new feature’s launch. The change took place at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, which means that at least 500,000 people cleared their social calendars to be close enough to a computer so that they could claim their cyber-territory. Pretty impressive.
Let me start by saying that I was not one of these half a million individuals. Like many people, I figured that I would just sign up for my new Facebook web address whenever I got around to it. Unfortunately, when I got “around to it” two days later, my best option was Facebook.com/jleroy1, or some variation of such. This URL won’t do me much good - it won’t help someone find me in search engines, nor is it something that I would necessarily put in my e-mail signature.
I’m not heartbroken that Facebook.com/JohnLeRoy is taken, but for someone whose business IS their name, hopefully they were one of the 500,000 people that logged in on Saturday! Obama (obviously) was able to snag his name, but can you imagine if his digital team had to settle for Facebook.com/bobama1961?
Wow, I’m glad I was able to grab my vanity URL when I did. Guess my name isn’t as popular as yours!