Last Saturday, June 13, Facebook began a new program that allows users to have “vanity” URLs for their Facebook profiles instead of the user-friendly-as-a-cornered-rat URLs that were previously the only option. This means that your profile page URL might have looked like this:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=700881756
But now it can look like this:
http://www.facebook.com/markgibbs
(Note: I haven’t actually got that URL yet but maybe by the time you read this …)
There has been a huge wave of interest in these vanity names (which Facebook calls “usernames”) which I find faintly ludicrous for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. First, let me explain what these usernames are all about …
There is no charge for usernames but there are a number of constraints. According to Facebook’s “Usernames: General Information” page: “Only those who created accounts before username availability was publicly announced at 3 p.m. on June 9, 2009 will be eligible. This decision was made to prevent people from creating new accounts just to take advantage of reserving a username. We’ve also reserved certain names that have been brought to our attention in an effort to help third parties protect their intellectual property and other rights.”
Usernames can only use letters and numbers and each profile can have only one username associated with it and, again from the general information page: “Once you have claimed a username by clicking the “Confirm” button after checking for a username’s availability, it is not possible to edit it, or to transfer your username to a different account on Facebook.” This means don’t make spelling mistakes, don’t try to be clever, and don’t think about changing your mind.
Another limitation is that “… when an account is removed from the site, its username will not be made available [again]. Facebook does this for security reasons.” OK, I guess that’s reasonable but how about this: “Facebook reserves the right to remove and/or reclaim any username at any time for any reason.” Not so good.
There’s been a lot of excitement over this feature which, as I noted, seems to me to be a little misplaced as in reality it really isn’t that big a deal. This is particularly true where real brands are concerned because (and this would seem to be something that you’d think was obvious to marketing folk but maybe not) the username effectively subjugates your brand “under” the Facebook brand.
Other than someone else misappropriating your intellectual property by claiming a username that was closely related to your brand (I suspect “Alfred Coke” might find that getting the username “acoke” a little tricky) why on earth would anyone care about Facebook usernames? When it comes to branding a URL you wholly own and that isn’t subservient to another brand is infinitely more valuable.
It will be interesting to see how the new Facebook username feature plays out. Will there be a virtual “landrush”? Will brands be firing off lawsuits? Will I get the username “markgibbs”? Only time will tell.
