By Mani Raj
Tonight at 12 AM (Midnight) EST, Facebook will be introducing "vanity URLs" for the ease of its users.
Vanity URLs are more personalized usernames picked by the user him/herself, compared to a user id randomly assigned by Facebook's system.
Facebook users will be able to choose a username of their own choice. But it will be strictly on a first-come, first-served basis.
For example, instead of your profile looking like this - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1030099127&ref=profile.
Now it will look like this - http://www.facebook.com/yourusername
Facebook wants to make it easier for family members, friends and co-workers to find their loved ones online. They also expect to offer more ways to its users to use their Facebook username in the future.
To minimize the threat of cybersquatting, Facebook already gave some businesses the opportunity to pre-register their trademarked business names. They also provided vanity URLs in advance to its employees and certain celebrities.
For more information, please visit the Facebook Blog.
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