Software

Facebook plans to roll out an update to the way it assigns URLs for user profiles later this week. Up until now, when you signed up for a new Facebook profile you were assigned a random string of numbers for your profile ID. But starting Saturday June 13th at 12:01AM you’ll be able to sign up for a profile with your actual name.

Users who already have Facebook accounts won’t be left out in the cold. They’ll be able to grab vanity URLs on a first come first served basis by visiting facebook.com/username. You’ll only be able to get one username per profile, so odds are you’re going to want to use either your real name, or whatever internet handle you use most often.

Once you pick a username you will not be able to change it. And if you’ve signed up for a new account recently, you might not be able to snag a username right away because Facebook is taking steps to prevent cybersquatters from rushing in, creating dozens of account names today and mucking up the system come Saturday.

How significant is this whole vanity URL thing? Well on the one hand, it definitely gives people a useful tool to maintain their online identities. On the other hand, seriously, it’s June, 2009 and Facebook hasn’t rolled out this feature until now? Twitter, MySpace, and even search engine Google already let you have URLs that match your profile names.