Facebook Introduces Personalised URLs

From this weekend, Facebook's 200 million users will be able to customise their profile URLs using actual names, rather than just the random URL identification numbers currently used.

Users will be able to register personal URLs such as facebook.com/coca-cola on a first-come, first-served basis. Facebook says that this initiative aims to help friends and family easily identify each other through its network and Internet search engines such as Google.

This new form of identification should attract a large number of businesses, who will make the most of the opportunity to enhance their presence in the social network by registering URLs that name their brands. However, it also raises concerns with respect to trade mark infringement, as anyone will be able to register URLs using well-known brands. A new source of cyber squatting may be on the rise.