Facebook announced yesterday that on Friday, June 11th, 2009 at 9:01pm (PDT), users would be allowed to flock to the site and grab their own vanity URLs. That means instead of hitting up the pub, watching game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, or catching a movie, people will be anxiously awaiting the opportunity to forever dub themselves www.facebook.com/Jason - or any other moniker that seems fitting.

Some additional information that should be considered. Facebook employees, important brands and trademarks, and now select journalists and members of the media will have (or will have had) first crack at taking the /Mikes and /Dells and the like before us regular people have a chance. Going 1 step further, /coke will even redirect to /cocacola.

As part of my below-the-line marketing efforts, I’m definitely interested in trying to grab something resembling keywords like dedicated servers, managed hosting, or something along those lines, as well as trying to grab possibly one of my nicknames, like ‘Barnsey’, or ‘JayAndSilentRob’. It only makes sense to do so, because there will be hoards of users trying to do the same thing! But do Facebook vanity URLs really matter?

Facebook is definitely a force on the Internet. There are millions of users that exist on the site, and I would guess a high percentage of those individuals would depend or even NEED the site, giving weight to the ‘crackbook’ or ‘facecrack’ references that are fairly common. But the strength or significance of these types of URLs is definitely questionable. MySpace has offered these for years, and while MySpace was once the 10,000lb gorilla on the block, it’s lost a lot of the allure it once had. Is Facebook really the force it once was? Along with Twitter (which is apparently on the downswing itself), every new site, or application, or social media platform that springs up is going to take away from Facebook, which for now seems to be sitting pretty on top. For example, isn’t the next big thing supposed to be Google Wave?

Maybe a better question to ask - does Facebook really matter?

Well, I’m not sure how much I’ll actually use the account, but I thought it was important to get on Twitter and make sure no one else got my alias. Having started looking at Twitter for Superb, it only made sense to look at it for myself, too. Although I won’t be talking about dedicated servers and managed hosting as much on my account, I hope I can tweet something worth following!

@JayAndSilentRob

There’s a great story on Techcrunch UK about a 13-year old in Scotland that’s created his own social network/blogging network. First, I think I should congratulate Scott - Congratulations, Scott, that’s amazing!

Now, I have to take a couple shots at Mike Butcher’s article… While many older people may not have the know to find out who writes about startups, send them press releases, and get on CrunchBase, when I was 13, the average older person couldn’t program the time on their VCR either. Personally, I was consumed with computers - but there was no Internet, no startups, no blogs to contact. I was on many-a-BBS, I created artwork in the what was then known as ANSi (wtf?), I had helped network the computers in our house to play Warcraft on no less than 3 computers (not quite WoW, but hey, it was early 90’s!). While living in Vancouver may have limited possibilities, I had a cousin who developed games and lived in Palo Alto and even made national TV, and the barriers for achieving success were no different for him.

In the age of the Internet, there’s an obvious advantage, but let’s not compare my time with his, because that’s not what the article was about. So, how was it possible for Scott to do so well? Okay, not to knock Scotland, but I have to suggest that North America is probably a bit further ahead than Scotland on the tech front; Scott would have been 9ish when MySpace was exploding on the North American scene. Livejournal, blogger, and others came to be around that time, too. Another point to consider is that what did you do when you were 13? I’m pretty sure most of us would have had a few hours a day that we could use for our hobbies, but as you get older, it’s harder to give time to hobbies or ’side projects’.

Okay, so if you were going to do a real startup, it shouldn’t be a side project, but again, compare this to setting the time on your VCR. Lots of older people could use them, but probably not every feature. Scott’s grown up with the Internet, blogs, social networks, Digg, etc. Even 5 years ago, many of these didn’t really exist, so it would be difficult to have a firm grasp on them all.

I think the real point of the article is summed up near the end and is fairly true: if a 13 year-old can launch a startup then the barrier to entry may be a lot lower than we thought. I have to agree. However, for companies looking to break in to the Internet game, whether as a startup or expanding as an established business, you simply can’t find a substitute for someone who lives and breathes and understands the beast that the Internet is - I’m sure Scott has a pretty good idea. Bottom line, anyone can hop on the Internet Superhighway, but it’s really easy to get lost.

Facebook Connect Launches - There has been a lot of work done with Identity, and up until now, it seemed like OpenID was slowly becoming the leading candidate, but as Om Malik points out in the article, the number and quality of launch partner sites is one reason why Facebook is going to get more traction compared to its rivals. Another article on the topic is Why Facebook Connect Matter & Why It Will Win.

Top Stories & Searches for 2008 - In a year that seemed dominated (on both sides of the border) by the political landscape, it might be a bit surprising that Britney Spears and WWE both ranked higher than Obama on the list, however, there’s probably a reasonable explanation for the results.

2nd Annual Open Web Awards Final Voting - It might be a bit questionable to have the ‘open’ web awards being offered by a commercial entity instead of an organization of sorts, but if it really is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology, it’s definitely got clout. Final round of voting can be found here.

Browser wars continue - As mentioned in a post earlier this week, browser market share had some interesting numbers; Firefox has passed the 20% mark, IE is below the 70% mark, and Chrome and Safari are slowly clawing out their own niche in the market.

Hirings and Firings - Maybe the specific hires like Microsoft adding former Yahoo! Exec Dr. Qi Lu as President of Online Services Group aren’t the real story. With AT&T announcing 12,000 jobs will be cut (4% of its workforce) and Google looking to eliminate projects, the tech industry is definitely being affected by the slowing of the economy.

cyberbullying: 1. the use of electronic means by a minor to torment, threaten, harass, humiliate, embarrass or otherwise target another minor. 2. when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person online or repeatedly picks on another person through emails or text messages, or uses online forums and postings online intended to harm, damage, humiliate or isolate another person that they don’t like. (see Wikipedia)

The federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act is an update to CRS Report 97-1025 to bolster the uncertain coverage of more general federal trespassing, threat, malicious mischief, fraud, and espionage statutes.

Until recently, most people had probably thought very little about the implications of the act, and although many people are still probably unfamiliar with it, they will almost certainly be familiar with the case of the U.S. v. Lori Drew - the Mom-bully on MySpace.

While the direct case itself doesn’t affect most people, the verdict, that based on MySpace’s Terms of Service it was illegal for Lori Drew to submit information that was not ‘truthful and accurate’. Couple this ruling with the agreement that ‘the social networking site has the final say on deciding whether content posted by users violates a long list of regulations (1)’, and suddenly websites have been given the power to define the law.

Most people have provided false information for a website at some point, whether warranted or not, but this may go beyond that - as pointed out by AlmostLegally, if your place of work says not to send out personal email from your work computer and you do, is that a federal crime?

The Internet seems to be founded on freedom and anonymity, and yet as we take steps to protect people and prevent the misuse of the Internet, we restrict the very things that make the Internet. How does this affect you? More importantly, how WILL it affect you now? Normally I’d be content to observe from the sidelines on this one, but an article on Groklaw.net regarding an amicus brief submitted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation et al gave me some points that I thought were worth posting about. Definitely a recommended read by those much more learned on the matter than you or I.

If nothing else, I hope every parent that allows their child or children unmonitored access to the Internet will think twice about that choice. I hope that other families can be spared this pain by learning from this.