Comments on: The trouble with Facebook vanity URLs

By: Trouble with Facebook vanity URLS | The Logo Factor Design Blog

Trouble with Facebook vanity URLS | The Logo Factor Design Blog — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:56:11 +0000

[...] Steve Douglas wrote an interesting post today onTrouble with Facebook vanity URLS | The Logo Factor Design BlogHere’s a quick excerpt [...]

By: Anlina Sheng

Anlina Sheng — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:30:18 +0000

I was fortunate enough to be able to snap up "anlina" for my vanity url, probably because it's such an unusual name. I was worried another Anlina might get it (or the Russian watch company that owns anlina.com might grab it), but it never even occurred to me that someone might grab it up just to squat (I guess also because I was under the impression that they were permanent and unchangeable.) I'd feel really quite violated if anlina had been taken and someone had grabbed anlinasheng. It's one thing to have someone with the same name as you to beat you to the punch, but to have someone take it just so you can't have it... Anlina Sheng’s last blog post..Loving a shelter cat

By: redwall_hp

redwall_hp — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:08:31 +0000

Yes, this whole thing sucks. I probably wouldn’t have had a problem getting my name, but it’s too long. I went for a shorter version (6 letters) instead.

Molly Wood from CNET had her name swiped as well. http://twitter.com/mollywood/status/2170805747

Oh, and “Assetize” is a bad choice of name…

redwall_hp’s last blog post..Custom Taxonomies in WordPress 2.8

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:05:42 +0000

@ Johathan - you can find me here http://twitter.com/TheLogoFactory I have a personal account safely socked away but I haven't used just yet.

By: jonathan a allen

jonathan a allen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:25:22 +0000

Thanks for welcoming me to your site. I think all in all, facebook is huge, and if used properly, i suppose it could bring in some extra “attention” to one’s website or blog… but after i thought about losing out on my first/last name vanity url, it really doesn’t seem as thought im missing anything. Honestly, i have never typed anyones old facebook url into a browser in my life. And im on facebook daily. Simply put, i sign in, and do a basic search for anyone im looking for. I mean, really, the vanity urls dont seem to add anything special to the facebook experience to me. Except when i create a “contact me on facebook” link on one of my sites, i have the convenience of not writing a bunch of numbers into the url. Of course now that there is a such thing as having a vanity url, tons of people will use them. There’s no doubt there, but i dont see that we are at an uber significant advantage having them. Maybe im wrong and jumping the gun on this one. But generally, if you are on someones website and they have a link to their facebook page, it really doesnt matter what their vanity url is once a visitor makes a friend/fan request. And speaking of fan requests… i can’t even make a vanity url for my sites because i dont have 1000 fans. Ummm hello, what gives? I guess bottom line is that for some, it could prove useful, but for me, facebook was fine without the “myspace-esque” username thing. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

on another note, whats your twitter, Steve? I’d like to follow if you have one.

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:06:35 +0000

@ Jonathan – welcome. I like your solution. I wish I had have grabbed steve.douglas or another available option (when I realized I had lost my name, I snapped at the first variant I saw). Unfortunately, I’m one of the rare souls who doesn’t have a middle name so it wouldn’t work for me. Guess I could have gone with the full spelling name of my first name – Stephen – but due to getting incessantly razzed as ‘Stephanie’ when I was a kid, I’ve never used it.

By: jonathan a allen

jonathan a allen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:58:10 +0000

wow... to think that someone would stoop that low is completely ridiculous! And most likely there is nothing that David will be able to do. Don't expect Zuckerberg to do anything unless you have your name copyrighted and actually feel like going through the wringer to "attempt" to claim rights to it. Unlikely, and completely unfortunate! Like you Steve, I too have a very common first/last name combo also, and jon allen, jonathan allen, jonathan, and jon, were already gone by the time i got my first keystroke in (which could easily have been taken by one of the facebook employees that had first dibs on any and every vanity url ahead of the general public). I ended up just throwing my middle initial in there, and to take away some of the clutter, i just tell people its facebook.com/jonathan.a.allen (same as jonathanaallen... with or without the decimals, it takes you to the same page). Squatters suck... no way around it, and normally when it comes to domains, i figure, well its fair and square that i didnt think of buying it first. But when you're talking about someone first and last name, you're stepping over the line in terms of being able to affect the person's reputation, and that is going too far. jonathan a allen’s last blog post..Animal Pins – Animal Pin Icons

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:44:18 +0000

@ Ben – thanks for dropping by. I was initially opposed to the idea, but I guess I’m starting to like the introduction of a ‘verified account’ system.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:32:20 +0000

It does seem that every new URL-based system is open to just this sort of squatting. I think in the case of Facebook URLs the dot makes no difference - much like with Gmail differences firstnamelastname is the same as firstname.lastname hence both the David Airey options being taken. I think it's a variation of this sort of thing that has driven the Twitter 'verified accounts' system - but yeah, it's a crock. Ben’s last blog post..New blog design

By: Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:31:23 +0000

@ David – Crock is right. Pisses me off when idiots take advantage of other people’s legitimate efforts. In my case there wasn’t any nefarious intentions – simply a matter of another Steve Douglas being faster on the draw than I was (to be honest, I fell asleep watching the telly). In your case, it’s completely different, especially if the person also snagged david.airey as well. I think we’re going to hear a lot of complaints if Facebook allows this kind of thing to go unchecked.