The countdown has begun (and you can watch it here): at 12:01 am ET on Saturday morning June 13, Facebook users will be able to create usernames (aka "vanity URLs) for their profiles using real words rather than just the numbers that now represent each user.
In other words: currently I am user #748461753 on Facebook, but come Friday night West Coast time, I will jump on Facebook and try to grab my vanity URL, so that my listing on Facebook (and hence the web) will be something like www.facebook.com/myvanityurl.
Why?
Because this will make my Facebook profile easier to search for on the web, and is part of the move toward the "semantic web" that is coming down the pike. The "semantic" web is all about getting richer and more useful information when you look for something on the web. For instance, in my case, I want people to find all my writing and services in one place when they search for me. That's not what you get when you Google me -- you get a page that has lots of my stuff, but a) not all of it and b) it's interspersed with other results.
Anyway, back to Facebook. If you are a Facebook user, you should definitely plan on getting a vanity URL at your earliest convenience. One can assume that it will be pretty tough to get through to the FB servers in the minutes and hours immediately after 12:01 am ET, so plan on trying some time this weekend. You can read more about it on Facebook's blog here or on these many news and blog posts.
Here's a timely resource that may come in handy, especially if you use Facebook for your product or services: Adam Metz has posted a Facebook Vanity URL Action Plan.
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