Vanity URLs coming to Facebook have been previously announced, but now it is setting a date for when they will be available. Starting this Saturday, June 13th, at 12:01 a.m. EDT, Facebook will allow its users to pick a custom URL for their profile.

Currently, Facebook profile URLs end in the not very attractive “profile.php?id=592952074.” Some have been asking for the change for a while now and, come Saturday, they will be able to choose whatever they like, with a few rules, of course, turning their Facebook profile URL into something more like Twitter's, for example www.facebook.com/your.name .

“We're planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future,” Blaise DiPersia wrote on the Facebook blog.

Facebook has decided to make the vanity profile URLs available to anyone with more than 1,000 fans and for free, although it thought of charging for the service in the past. When choosing a new profile URL, Facebook will suggest some based on your name, but you can also use any custom name. There are a few rules, for starters you can only use alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (“.”). And, if you decide to go with a custom URL, there are a few that can't be used and Facebook is also asking people with copyrighted names to send them in so they can be excluded.

The names will be given on a “first come first served” basis and to avoid squatting, and, for now, they will not be available to accounts created after May 31. Also think twice before choosing a vanity URL, as you won't be able to change it or transfer it after that, so you will be stuck with it “for life.”