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Google's Saurabh Sharma announced yesterday on Google+ that they are releasing slowly the ability for users and businesses to create their own vanity or custom URLs on Google+.
For example, Britney Spears's page is at plus.google.com/+britneyspears/ while mine is at plus.google.com/112116680648779331229/.
When can I get mine? Google said:
At first, we're introducing custom URLs to a limited number of verified profiles and pages. But over time we plan to offer custom URLs to many more brands and individuals, so please stay tuned!
I do hope Google 301s the old URLs to the new vanity URLs. Right now, both plus.google.com/100000772955143706751 and plus.google.com/+britneyspears/ return the same page with the same content. They are using a canonical tag, which I thought is a bandaid approach.
Forum discussion at Google+ & Google Business Help.
Comments:
William Vicary
08/14/2012 01:12 pm
It seems like they are altering the browser history to change the URL (using javascript) however there isn't a proper 301 redirect going on.
Tony Milano
08/14/2012 01:40 pm
It's about time. Of course now I'll have to change my links all over the net. Thanks for the share.
Kevin Mullett
08/14/2012 04:14 pm
I am left to wonder why they are not using the newly acquired ".plus" gTLD in some way for this so we get a shortened url at the same time. "g.plus/username". EDIT: I realize they are not able to be used yet, just thought they might announce intentions. As someone else pointed out though, that is likely premature.