Facebook has announced that it will make available customised URLs to its 200-plus million members this Saturday, June 13th.
At present, a user's Facebook profile is given a web address consisting of randomly generated numbers. Hoping to make it easier for people to find and connect with one another, Facebook will be offering users the chance to change their URL to better reflect their profile.
The change is expected to help Facebook's presence in search engines, with individually-named profiles likely to record a greater number of hits.
Facebook's custom URLs will be made available at 12:01am EDT on Saturday, that's 04:01am GMT. We'd expect a mad rush to obtain custom URLs, and Facebook addicts are advised to get in early.
Custom URLs will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, and Facebook adds that a URL must be at least five characters in length, and contain only alphanumeric characters or a full stop. Last but not least, it warns that a URL should be carefully chosen as once selected, it can't be changed or transfered.
In order to prevent a surge of username reservations, Facebook adds that users who signed up to the service after May 31st may not be eligible for a custom URL.
