• Marketing Land
  • Sections
    • MarTech
    • CMO
    • Social
    • SEM
    • SEO
    • Mobile
    • Analytics
    • Display
    • Email
    • Retail
    • Video
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Subscribe to Our Feed! Check out our newsletters! Join our LinkedIn Group
    • Follow
  • Marketing Land
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Retail
  • MarTech
  • More
    • Subscribe to Our Feed! Check out our newsletters! Join our LinkedIn Group
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

Marketing Land

Marketing Land

Deep Dive

Facebook, Privacy and Cambridge Analytica

Email Marketing

Behavioral triggered emails beyond e-commerce

Events

Attend Marketing Land’s conferences

  • MarTech
  • CMO
  • Social
  • SEM
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Analytics
  • Display
  • Email
  • Retail
  • Video
  • Home
Social Media Marketing

Get the most important digital marketing news each day.


Ugly URLs Be Gone! Google+ Opens Vanity URLs For Certain Accounts

Matt McGee on August 13, 2012 at 2:51 pm
  • More

google-plus-red-128Google+ is taking the first step toward what will be a big and important change that could help uptake and activity on the year-old social network: vanity/custom URLs.

Limited Availablity, At First

Google employee Saurabh Sharma announced the news on Google+, saying that vanity URLs will initially only be available on a limited basis:

At first, we’re introducing custom URLs to a limited number of verified profiles and pages. But over time we plan to offer custom URLs to many more brands and individuals, so please stay tuned!

Brands, Celebrities & The Oatmeal

Some of those verified accounts that now have vanity URLs include Delta Airlines, Britney Spears, Hugh Jackman, Toyota and others.

Matthew Inman, the artist behind The Oatmeal comic still doesn’t have a vanity URL of his own, despite his wish earlier this year. Inman, who’s well-followed on Google+, had joked:

I still wish I could set up a fancy profile URL so I don’t have to link people to
http://plus.google.com/blergasdf1234thimbleturdorgasm99meatpoopypoopxv9donkeypie
when I want them to follow me.

Last night, TechCrunch reported that the joke URL that Inman made up started redirecting to his actual profile. That’s not the same as having his own vanity name, such as http://plus.google.com/+matthewinman.

Someday, Everyone Will Have Their Own Name

Eventually, Google says, vanity URLs will “be available to people and pages worldwide.” But there’s no word on when or how that will happen.

This is a big and important step for Google. Profile URLs (like mine — plus.google.com/108652640482631482795/) are long, ugly, and essentially impossible to promote. The Boston Celtics, for example, can easily advertise their @Celtics Twitter handle right on their home court flooring, but they wouldn’t dare try doing anything similar with plus.google.com/116274984352579031823.

At Google’s I/O conference in June, Google+ VP Bradley Horowitz revealed that custom URLs would be coming soon, and admitted that users “shouldn’t have to give someone a 16-digit number” to connect with another Google+ user.



About The Author

Matt McGee
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Popular Stories

Facebook’s ‘Premieres’ video format will let publishers post prerecorded video as live footage
Facebook’s secret ‘Loyalty Prediction’ ad tool anticipates future user behavior & purchases
Snapchat broadens its ad options with new Shoppable AR Lenses for brands

Related Topics

Channel: Social Media MarketingGoogle: Google+Social Media Marketing

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Attend Our Conferences

Gain new strategies and insights at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management. Our next conference will be held:

April 23-25, 2018: San Jose

Oct 1-3, 2018: Boston

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

June 11-13, 2018: SMX Advanced

October 23-25, 2018: SMX East

×

Attend SMX - Click Here


Learn More About Our SMX Events

White Papers

  • The Growth Marketer’s Guide to Email Metrics
  • Evolve Now To Personalization 2.0: Individualization
  • How Mature Is Your Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy? The Iterable Readiness Assessment
  • Media Rich and Fast: Best Practices for Optimizing Web Page Speed
  • Knowing What Works for Growing Sales Faster: A Retail Marketer’s Guide
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • Unifying Your Search and Social Ad Strategies
  • Customer Data Strategies & Identity Resolution: Best Practices
  • Omnichannel Personalization at Scale: How leading brands drive sales across channels
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
  • Enterprise SEO Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
  • Paid Media Campaign Management Platforms
  • Local Marketing Automation Tools
See More Research
MarTech Guide to Understanding GDPR
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Marketing Land
Download the Marketing Land app on iTunes Download the Marketing Land App on Google Play

Follow Us

© 2018 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.