RSS
Home
Facebook gives you your (or at least a) name
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
I’d be remiss if I didn’t use my initial social media article to cover the biggest news in social media: Facebook’s decision to open up their URL format to personal names. And they’ve offered them up to their users in what’s being called a “land rush:” a first-come-first-served grab-your-name free-for-all starting at 12:01 AM Eastern time on Saturday, June 13.
In a nutshell: Currently, the URL of your Facebook profile looks like http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=707432523 or somesuch. As of 6/13/12:01/2009, your URL can be http://www.facebook.com/johnsmith.
(Though if your name is John Smith, consider thejohnsmith, johnsmithisnumberone, or staying home Friday night.)
Speculation abounds as to what this will mean--for the future of Facebook and Social Media in general. Chris Messina posits that this is Facebook’s way of working towards the Open ID format, which would make signing up for new services online a hell of a lot easier.
Anil Dash makes a series of predictions, stretching out over the next year and a half. Some are prescient, some are just Anil getting his jollies.
Over at the Daily Beast, Douglas Rushkoff thinks this new accessibility will ruin Facebook, just as AOL pooched it by opening their service up to the Internet:
By opening itself to the greater Internet, AOL revealed itself as something of a wading pool. A mini-Internet. Once people could use AOL as a portal to the true, unadulterated, global net, the company was reduced to an ISP…Steve Case knew his moment was over, and used his inflated stock price to purchase some real assets like Time Warner. We all know how that turned out.
Moreover, by turning Facebook pages into real Web pages, the company reveals to its users just how close to the real Internet they've been all along, while removing the last few illusory boundaries between the mini-universe of Facebook pages and the greater ecosystem of the Net.
Rushkoff thinks that people will forsake Facebook in favor of actual home pages, but I disagree. Facebook still has plenty of wall in its garden to remain a more user-friendly way to maintain a community.
That said, what with Facebook clocking 200 million-plus users, a move like this signals the beginning of some sort of sea change in Social Media.
Personal URLs will make us easier to find on Facebook. Easier to track. And easier to market to. Whole new industries could crop up in the wake of this, starting with spammers and direct marketers. And that's just the tip of the Zuckerberg (sorry--couldn't resist).
It's too soon to tell if the Facebook vanity URLs will change how you use Facebook, the Internet, your name, etc. But this feels like something big.
Do you want a vanity URL? Do you care? Hit me with your opinions in the comments below.
For more info:
Related Articles:
Comments
