Google Plus Introduces Vanity URLs
Posted on August 17, 2012
You probably have heard some decent jokes about Google+, mostly consisting of punchlines about crickets chirping or tumbleweeds blowing through an imaginary virtual landscape. But now, Google+ is joining the ranks of their social media colleagues at Facebook and Twitter with the introduction of vanity URLs. Vanity URLs are custom addresses that typically are far easier and shorter than the complicated web addresses that include long strings of numbers and characters. As you can see from the Clay Pot Creative Google+ page, they can be a little painful to look at: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104346790418713211765/posts At present, the vanity URLs are available exclusively to selected celebrities like Britney Spears and David Beckham and popular brands like Delta and Toyota, but the search engine giant is planning on making the custom URL option available to "many brands and individuals." According to Google employee Saurabh Sharma, personalized addresses will be "available to people and pages worldwide" but no date was mentioned. A strong selling point available to businesses using Google+ is the ability to leverage groups of clients. Instead of distributing information that goes to all users, Google+ has "Circles" that you can create of specific audience members. For example, Toyota could potentially have circles for hybrids, SUVs, trucks, and car owners. If they wanted to disclose information about the Prius, they could distribute it exclusively to the hybrid circle. Facebook is still the market leader in all things in the social media world with Pintrest and Twitter both establishing their own presence, but Google+ should not be forgotten. Stay tuned for more news about when vanity URLs will become available to the general population.
