According to Facebook designer Blaise Dispersia, the change will mean that instead of having a Facebook URL ending in a randomly assigned number -- such as http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789 -- users can create a profile link that more clearly indicates their identity -- for example, http://www.facebook.com/blaise.dispersia.

"When your friends, family members or coworkers visit your profile or pages on Facebook," Dispersia said in a recent blog post, "they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future."

Head Start for Businesses

In an effort to minimize the problem of cybersquatting that has plagued domain-name registrars, Facebook has given businesses the opportunity to preregister trademarked business names to prevent them from being claimed by others.

According to reports, tens of thousands of businesses have already preregistered trademarks. In addition, the company has quietly provided vanity URLs in advance to Facebook employees and "certain celebrities."

A company that fails to preregister its trademark before Friday's rush can probably get it back, but will probably need to obtain a court order, which can be both time-consuming and expensive.

Still Chasing Twitter

Facebook's decision to incorporate vanity URLs into its site is another indication that despite its success, the social-networking site is uneasy about other upstart competitors, particularly the rapidly growing Twitter. Since its inception, Twitter has offered short URL links to profiles that match each user's screen name, which generally makes it easier to find people on the site or refer people to a specific user's tweets.

However, Facebook users will find that they still have somewhat less flexibility than on other sites. In particular, selecting a vanity URL for your Facebook profile is a one-shot deal: "Think carefully about the username you choose," Dipersia warned. "Once it's been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer it."

Other restrictions apply: The name must be at least five characters long, can only include standard alphanumeric characters and periods, and is currently only available for Romanized text. The company is considering adding other alphabets in the near future.

The addition of vanity URLs to the Web's most popular social-networking site underscores the ongoing importance of personal branding. It will be interesting to watch the inevitable squabbles and disagreements that arise among like-named individuals.