Comments on: My Name is Not a URL

By: nick

nick — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 07:58:18 +0000

yeah tiny-fb.com has been doing that for facebook users for ages. creates your own tiny-fb.com/yourname site for your facebook account. makes it easier to twit, sms, email and randomly jot down your facebook details to people.

By: Eamonn Kennedy

Eamonn Kennedy — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:01:28 +0000

I found your article after searching for the terms “google my name 2009″.

I’m doing a little research on how search engines index, and assign semantics to names in particular.

I think another positive aspect of “vanity URLs” is that it lends a real weight to person’s online public profile. I.e. it provides a means of traceability and therefore increased accountability for their online actions.

Nicknames and pseudonym’s, while often traceable, still make people feel like they have a degree of online anonymity, or at very least provides a distinction between their online and offline personalities. I feel that online communities in general will benefit hugely from a lack of anonymity. In fact, I can imagine, that we might begin to see a serious split between communities that allow nicknames, and those that do not.

Yours sincerely,

Anonymous

(only joking, Eamonn)

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:29:53 +0000

I have removed the gap between the ‘real’ me and the ‘online presence’ me. I also changed my twitter alias to my real name, among others.

Couldn’t FB offer semi-customizable vanity URLs that are the same as user’s real name? As in, ‘John Smith’ gets 2 or 3 options for URLs (/JohnSmith, /JSmith, /JohnS), etc.

Otherwise we’re going to see a lot more redirected occurring, so users can advertise JohnSmith.com/Facebook and have it point to their profile

By: Il problema delle identità negli URL dei social network | RaccoltaBlog

Il problema delle identità negli URL dei social network | RaccoltaBlog — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:27:13 +0000

[...] Via | Insidefacebook.com [...]

By: Christoph Schmaltz

Christoph Schmaltz — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:26:14 +0000

‘…and so everyone on the Internet will soon know that you are not a dog.’

I agree that there is a ‘correlation between durable identity and higher quality participation’. If I go to TripAdvisor a review written by a ‘real’ person automatically has more credibility than that of a ‘fake’ person.

Ideally, I can follow a link to that person’s profile (either on TripAdvisor or something completely different) where I can see more about that person’s action on the Internet (maybe even his travels on Dopplr), his social graph etc. All that information can help me in establishing how trustworthy that person really is.

Over time, we, as well as organizations are going to open up to form a truly online social network replicating the offline world. Looking at Facebook, Twitter or even some corporate blogs we see ‘real’ people interacting with each other instead of ‘hiding’ behind meaningless avatars, URLs or brand logos.

By: Raquibul Islam

Raquibul Islam — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:30:51 +0000

I agree with Earl .

By: Joe Dawson

Joe Dawson — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:19:35 +0000

My name is Earl…

I would like to be recognised as Joe Dawson and not ’501760832′ as it sounds like I am a prisoner :)