But on Facebook, currently I’m http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=716098588. Ugh. Not exactly a memorable URL. But all this is changing at 12:01am this Saturday, June 13. At that time, you’ll be able to create a vanity URL for your profile. You guessed it; I’m hoping very much to be http://www.facebook.com/jmpineda. Perhaps more importantly, I want a vanity URL for the Matrix Group fan page, which is currently at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Matrix-Group-International-Inc/48658676723. (The Matrix Group Facebook fan URL is so long and unfriendly that I have to access my bookmarks to share it with others.)
Vanity URLs, also known as addressable identities, will sure make it easy for all of us to share our Facebook profiles with others and encourage friending and fanning (are friending and fanning real verbs these days?)
The Facebook blog has this to say about the rules for creating a username:
- Facebook usernames will be available in basic text forms.
- You can only choose a single username for your profile and for each of the Pages that you administer.
- Your username must be at least five characters in length and only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), or a period or full stop (“.”).
So, if you have a relatively common name or you want to more easily share the URL for your personal or company Facebook page, be sure to stay up and get your new username/vanity URL/addressable identity on Facebook on June 13 (yep, it’s only a day away.)
Good luck and please report back on this blog about the experience — did you get the name you wanted, did you have any trouble on the site?
Update from Joanna on January 14, 2010:
It seems Facebook has changed it policies again. Good news! Now you only need 25 fans to apply for a vanity URL. Check out:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=15073
