14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook's Vanity URLs have finally become available to any user or business with over 1000 friends. As expected, Facebook users flocked to get their names secured and apparently registrations have passed 1 million names within the first hour, although the numbers haven't been officially confirmed.
Vanity URLs were first announced this week after many requests from users who did not like the “profile.php?id=592952074” that came with regular Facebook profiles. However, the company has imposed a few rules to avoid 'squatting' of popular names so only accounts created before May 31 and with over 1000 friends will be able to get a Vanity URL today with the rest having to wait a month. Also, the names will be given on a “first come first served” basis and can't be transferred or sold. Even with these measures there are still concerns that many will try to profit from the move.
The deadline came and, as of last night at 12:01 a.m. EDT, 9:01 p.m. PST, those meeting the conditions are allowed to apply for a custom URL. And they have done so, in huge numbers, as the first statistics are coming in. In fact 200,000 usernames were registered in just 3 minutes after the deadline had passed and went on to 500,000 in 15 minutes. The latest numbers show 1 million Vanity URLs claimed in just one hour.
Facebook's developers have taken measures to ensure that everything goes down smoothly and that the site can handle the expected load. To this end they have designed a very simple username registration page but also removed some features that consumed the most resources. However, they have prepared for the worst and if indeed the load turns out to be too great they are prepared to change the Facebook homepage to the Username page. There are no official reports yet but so far everything seems to be working as expected.