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Google+ Rolls Out Vanity URLs to Verified Users

Google has begun rolling out vanity URLs to a small group of verified users, allowing for easier search access of the profiles of Britney Spears, Toyota, and David Beckham.

August 14, 2012

Google is rolling out a new perk for verified Google+ users: vanity URLs, which allow the customization of the plus.google.com link.

The shorter, more memorable custom URLs are being provided to a small number of verified brands and celebrities, including Toyota, Britney Spears, Ubisoft, and Delta.

The search giant, of course, provided itself with a vanity URL: google.com/+googleplus.

Google product manager Saurabh Sharma said in a post that the custom URLs are meant to help users find people with shared interests, as well as simplify the Google+ profile search process.

Hugo Boss and David Beckham are also among the first to get personalized Google+ links.

The biggest change in the new URL system is the removal of the branded http://plus. Now, in order to check out Hugh Jackman's latest posts, you simply have to type google.com/+hughjackman into your browser, in a move that The Next Web said is "an important move toward something Google has said all along: Google+ IS Google, and vice versa."

All vanity pages redirect to the http://plus URL, but it is not required to visit a profile.

Currently, non-verified users are identified as a string of jumbled numbers, and it will likely stay that way for a while. Instead of dumping an entire Web's worth of custom links at once, Google is introducing the URLs to only a limited number of verified profiles and pages, but expects to offer the vanity links to more brands and individuals in the future, Sharma said.

If you are really itching to have a personalized Plus page, third-party apps like gplus.to provide just that service, by allowing you to create a nickname and a shortened link to share with family and friends.

With this announcement, Google joins the ranks of other social networks, including MySpace and Facebook, added a vanity URL option years ago.

In June 2009, Facebook all users to create usernames for personalized URLs, substituting your choice of name to make it easier for people to find your site. Anyone with a Facebook profile, or brand pages with more than 1,000 fans, had the opportunity to customize their social network.

MySpace took a different approach a month later, when the site rolled out its beta mail client, which provided users with an email address .

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