Update: The Facebook vanity URL landgrab
By Andrew Heining | 06.15.09
Good weekend? Facebook was busy.
Just about six million of you spent at least some of it on the social networking site, snapping up real estate. That’s the word from Mashable, who reports that in the first three minutes of Facebook vanity URL availability, some 200,000 “vanity urls” were registered.
What’s the benefit of a Facebook vanity URL? Location, location, location.
“When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you,” Facebook designer Blaise DiPersia wrote last week on the company blog.
The dilemma, of course, is what to pick. Many choose to go with something simple like a first and last name combination. Others, like Christine Shipley, opt for something a little more creative. The San Francisco resident chose facebook.com/default.aspx, making her address look like the default landing page of the site. (Though, as TechCrunch’s MG Siegler points out, “savvy users will know that the site is written in PHP, and not ASP, which the .aspx extension suggests.”)
Among the 194 million Facebook users yet to register a vanity url? Don’t fret. Common names like Michael are taken, but more unique names (Dwight Schrute, I’m talking to you) are – for now – still available.
We’re at facebook.com/christiansciencemonitor, if you were wondering. Stop by and say hello.
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