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Millions of vanity URLs already registered, with millions more expected

Facebook saw its users register personalized web addresses at a rate of more than 550 per second after the company opened up vanity URL registration last week.

Within 15 minutes of public launch Saturday morning (12:01 AM EST), 500,000 Facebook users already grabbed their Facebook vanity URL.    After an hour, more than 1 million personalized Web addresses were chosen -- the number now tops more than 6 million.

Although there is still a bit of confusion as to why Facebook decided to enable this ability, it was done to make it easier for users to distribute their Facebook profiles to other users.  Furthermore, it will also be easier to find Facebook profiles through search engines with the use of vanity names.

Some users feel Facebook didn't give them enough warning, as a notice wasn't posted on the site until Tuesday, June 9.  Quite a few Facebook users lost out on their desired vanity URL, and must now select an alternative before they also are taken.

Sites such as MySpace and Twitter already allow users to personalize their own vanity URLs, with great success.  Anyone who has tried to give someone their Facebook profile information likely is aware that it often was troublesome to either search by name or enter an awkward URL that contained random letters and numbers.

Once a name has been chosen, it cannot be used again and is final.  It's possible some users and companies on Facebook will head to court to settle legal disputes that are likely to arise now.  Facebook anticipated a high number of cybersquatters, and reserved thousands of names of athletes, celebrities, politicians and other possible high-profile users.

"Facebook is going to spend a lot of time mediating these disputes," Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp attorney Howard Weller told Bloomberg.  This is "clearly an opportunity to advance the brand, but it also invites a headache," for any company using Facebook to reach out to consumers.

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ebay vanity urls
By rudy on 6/15/2009 6:03:52 PM , Rating: 5
Now lets see what URL fetches the most money on ebay.




RE: ebay vanity urls
By rudy on 6/15/2009 6:04:40 PM , Rating: 3
One other thing so they are very popular why didn't facebook charge for this service so they could actually turn a profit.


RE: ebay vanity urls
By notfeelingit on 6/15/2009 6:10:08 PM , Rating: 5
I like the girl who registered default.aspx. Classic.


Random comment
By 90r1ll4 on 6/15/2009 5:32:30 PM , Rating: 2
it often was troublesome to either search by name or enter an awkward URL that contained random letters and numbers.

Awkward URL, probably - but "random?" No.

I know the word "random" has become a colloquialism, but no need for it in a semi-formal write-up.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the article, thanks.




Digital Identity
By InternetGeek on 6/15/2009 11:18:43 PM , Rating: 2
So I was able to grab a name that's exactly the same as my Twitter. Hopefully, some other sites will follow and, if lucky enough, I should be able to stablish a kind of 'brand'...

So in the fure your name won't be important any more...




Just great.
By dark matter on 6/16/2009 2:33:36 AM , Rating: 2
So instead Dave Smith challenges you to Texas Hold Em Poker on my wall, I will now get ub3r h4k3r 3000 has picked his top 5 boogers, pick your top 5 boogers now!




Resistance is NOT futile
By Lord 666 on 6/15/09, Rating: -1
RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By HostileEffect on 6/15/2009 4:56:12 PM , Rating: 3
People do listen from time to time.

If it can be displayed then it can be saved, no way around it.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By FuzionMonkey on 6/15/2009 5:06:44 PM , Rating: 3
You can't stop people from saving images. Welcome to computers, enjoy your stay.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By mmntech on 6/15/2009 5:05:40 PM , Rating: 2
A tad paranoid are we? You can restrict who can access your FB pictures by going into privacy settings then selecting "edit photo album privacy settings". You can then set photos to viewable by everyone, friends and friends of friends, only friends, some friends, or just you. I have all mine set so only my friends can see them. Unfortunately, the internet will never be 100% secure. You're taking an even greater risk when you do your banking online but that certainly doesn't stop people.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By theslug on 6/15/2009 5:11:20 PM , Rating: 2
Doesn't that only prevent your own pictures from being seen? What if you are in someone else's picture, who has it widely available?


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By Bremen7000 on 6/16/2009 2:02:11 AM , Rating: 2
You can remove a tag of you from other peoples' photos, so that while you're still visible, it's not "linked" to you.


By therealnickdanger on 6/16/2009 7:49:14 AM , Rating: 2
Plus, you may also report an "image violation" and FB will remove it without hesitation. Obviously, if your "friend" won't remove it if you ask politely, then he probably isn't a good friend to start with.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By dever on 6/16/2009 4:36:22 PM , Rating: 2
What's interesting, and I think misleading, is that even if you mark a photo "friends only"... one of your friends can tag it with their own name and it is then shown to all of their friends.

I believe you can also "share" a photo that someone else marks as "friends only."


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By jordanclock on 6/15/2009 5:10:40 PM , Rating: 2
So you want the browser to download the picture... but not allow it to be saved, even though it is already locally available now?

If you want your privacy, that's cool, but to think Facebook is this horrible place where all your secrets are exposed to the world is kind of getting out of hand. I've been a member for over a year and have friends that joined before me. I've never heard of a single instance, from them or any other place, where someone's personal information ended up in the wrong hands. You can't even look at people's pictures without them accepting you as a friend first, unless the user relaxes their privacy settings.

As for that video: Really? Their picture ends up being used in a way that you almost never hear of, and that's your evidence? Honestly, even if the picture were used, as the woman said, in a "devious" way, how would it get back to them?

Joining Facebook doesn't make you a lemming and I resent that you would say that about people that join. Facebook has been one of the more useful tools for contacting my friends who no longer live nearby and organizing events.

Good thing your username lacks any uniquely identifying information, or your "friends" would know you think they're just mindless lemmings.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By invidious on 6/15/2009 5:12:37 PM , Rating: 5
Being anti-conformist doesn't make you any less of a lemming than anyone else. You are clearly proud of your anti-conformance and your need to broadcast it just as superficial as those who loves facebook. If you care enough to make posts like this then you have embraced facebook (specifically your dislike of it) as part of your identity.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By xsilver on 6/15/2009 9:36:01 PM , Rating: 2
First rule of facebook is that you must talk about facebook.
Second rule of facebook is that you hit people who talk about facebook :P


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By Lord 666 on 6/16/2009 10:48:56 AM , Rating: 2
You are correct I am proud of the internal courage to stand different. Many of my views are in the minority, but not just for the sake of being different. This out of the box thinking has been beneficial career-wise.

Those lemmings are the "non-conformist conformists" like the goth kids in the mall that wear all black and conform to a look.

PS- I was not trolling, just stating my families view/concern about FB due to security and it being a time waster. True friends make time for each other.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By HighWing on 6/16/2009 11:28:49 AM , Rating: 2
... and True friends don't make threats over something as trivial as a photograph.

I could understand if you were under a witness protection program or something. But to "warn" friends to not post any pictures of you or your family online because your afraid of the extremely small chance it will be misused seems rather paranoid and childish. Personally I consider it a compliment if someone else posts a picture of me online.

FYI something you probably didn't think about, the fact that you have "warned" your friends about not posting a picture of you online probably only Increases the chances of a photo of you being misused online. As the act of "warning" your friends about doing so just pushes it to the top of the list of things to do for anyone who might want to blackmail you or get back at you for something. And since that would be the "only" photo of you online, you would either have to change your policy and upload more to overshadow that one, or forever live with that one online.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By acase on 6/16/2009 12:11:32 PM , Rating: 2
Yah, pretty sure if I had a friend order me to not put their picture online (as long as it was only out of paranoia and not for good reason) I would have to not only put some up there, but photoshop them to put them in as many illegal and perverted situations as possible.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By Lord 666 on 6/16/2009 12:37:37 PM , Rating: 2
Just yesterday someone called to ask permission if they could post a picture and we said no in a polite way. This "policy" also applies to Snapfish and other picture sharing sites.

Not to get too personal, but one of my kids (the toddler) is in the works of being compenstated for pictures as well have I previously.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By newdriver on 6/15/2009 5:13:39 PM , Rating: 2
Seriously? There are about 1,000 other ways to exploit people without using the hodgepodge of images and and scattered information one might find on Facebook. You'd really have to live in a box sans internet to escape a lot of those avenues.

I suppose your boycott could be worthwhile if you have a very small and local group of friends, otherwise you're only hurting yourselves. It's very easy to share memories with your friends and families, stay in touch with far away acquaintances, and maintain a larger network of contacts than you could otherwise without the aid of a social networking site.

We all got along without telephones just fine in the 1800's, but there are benefits to change. Are there drawbacks? Of course, but they're far outweighed by the positives. Suggesting users that have joined Facebook are lemmings is ignorant at best.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By Xerstead on 6/15/2009 6:58:35 PM , Rating: 2
It seems the Troll has been fed.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By JoshuaBuss on 6/16/2009 9:26:52 AM , Rating: 2
this is what I was thinking. way to go, dailytechers.


RE: Resistance is NOT futile
By dark matter on 6/16/2009 2:37:58 AM , Rating: 1
Wow dude, you must be real ugly.


"This is about the Internet.  Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis









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