Facebook vanity URLs: First-come, first-served this Friday night

June 9, 2009 | Eric Eldon | Comments | |

For some time, Facebook has been handing out vanity URLs (www.facebook.com/username) for personal and public profiles piecemeal, but now it’s letting everyone jump in. These URLs are easy to remember and will show up in search results — they help individuals and brands get more traffic.

On Friday, June 12th, at 9:01pm Pacific Time, you’ll be able to register a URL. But if you have a generic name like John Smith (no offense, just saying) you’ll have to act fast to beat the other John Smiths of the world. It’s first-come, first-served.

More on the company blog and its username FAQ.

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.

  • salvage
    1991 called
  • Dirt
    I've never made a facebook page. As a college student I was always paranoid about pictures of me running around naked turning up for my future employers/academic institutions to see. I feel kind of compelled to reserve my name now. It's to the point where it's weird to employers /proffessors if you don't have a profile on facebook, linkedin, etc.. Damn you facebook and damn you social networking.
  • Thats great...
  • can't get the facebook vanity url you want or don't have 1,000 fans on your page? here's an alternative way to get what you want. http://blog.studiomds.com/
  • Thanks for the info!

    I got my name as the username.

    You don't need 1,000 Fans to get your own username.

    Your Facebook account must be registered before June 9 as the only criteria.

    Mike