Names, Domain Names and "Vanity urls"

Written on June 14th, 2009 by syamant

Do you have a Facebook account and have you registered your personal name id ? It has been been called the “vanity url” by some and a feature that should always have been there by others. In this activity, there is concern that Facebook made some people more equal than others. A point I agree with as well.

Should Facebook have provided domain registration and mapping of profile or fan pages to the domain ? Yes is my answer.

Or will they do so in the future ?

Are many benefits if they did start such a service ?

A large number of domains that are purchased and never used could perhaps be put to better use. Most times the domains are registered to ensure no name-jacking takes place. Since there is no content, they are not even hosted. Owners of such domains could point to their profiles.
Many services and applications are being integrated into Facebook pages, should the business then not provide a domain address to guide users to the Facebook page and network ?

What are your thoughts ?

Facebook Vanity URLs Go Live on Friday Night (marketingvox.com)
Facebook’s Namespace Land Grab? Or Maybe…It’s Just Useful (battellemedia.com)
Vanity URLs Are Not A Business, And Why Facebook Will Provide Them For Free (allfacebook.com)

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Names, Domain Names and “Vanity urls” http://cli.gs/b3bEr7

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