Wow, I can get a personalised internet address now

Sometimes something seems really really good but it’s actually really really bad; stupid in fact.

So stupid that when you realise that it is so, you feel like bashing your head against a wall and cursing the gods while shaking your fist at the sky.

Or something like that.

A “personalised internet address”. Wow. Are you excited. And guess what, you can get one from Facebook. Wow again.

So what does this “personalised internet address” look like? Well, it looks like a facebook URL as in facebook.com/yourusername. Mine looks like facebook.com/jonstribling and I am proud as punch.

Hang on I hear you say, isn’t that just a Facebook URL with a username appended?
And hasn’t Twitter had them for years?

And doesn’t MySpace have usernames and “personalised internet addresses” already?

And can’t I register my own “personalised internet address” as a domain name?

The answer is yes, yes, yes and yes.

That didn’t stop 500,000 people registering usernames in the first 15 minutes and 3 million registering in the first 24 hours.

That is impressive!

So why the excitement?

Perhaps it is simply the fear of missing out and the shameful memory of having to choose a hotmail address like garyrocks97@hotmail.com.

Perhaps it is the wisdom of the crowd (mob)?

Perhaps it is the next big thing in Internet marketing? Will this be the transformative event for Facebook pages?

Perhaps it is just hype and we all feel a little shamefaced, much like the feeling after a huge night out on the rails.

There is no doubt that for companies using Facebook to promote to consumers this may be a good thing. The pages may be more easily found using search engines and some might get lucky with direct type-in traffic.

But for most of the 67 million members all it may do is invite more SPAM and put their privacy at risk. Those folks who haven’t done so should get a their own domain name, get a blog through a good web host, add some Facebook widgets, add their CV and start publishing. Really start personalising the Internet.

The only “personalised internet address” is an address I own the license as in jonstribling.info or markzuckerberg.com. A URL provided by a company which then effectively ‘owns’ my content is not personalisation, it is bloody clever marketing.

Oh, get your real personalised internet address here at registerfree.com.