Facebook Set to Offer Personalized URLs

Average users has 130 friends, spends 55 minutes a day

(NEWSER) - Facebook's runaway growth is well documented, but some details still wow, and some are quite odd. Website Monitoring takes a look at the salient facts.

• Popularity: The US has the most active users, but 70% of Facebookers are international. Sure, the UK comes in at No. 2, but No. 3 is...Indonesia? Turkey grabs the No. 4 spot, just ahead of France.

Pages are easier to read and faster to load, but that may not survive advertising

(NEWSER) - As far as Facebook is concerned, the “liter” the better, writes Rafe Needleman for CNET. The site’s scaled-down “Lite” version is now available in the US and India, and the "new layout feels simpler and faster, almost Twitter-like.” Gone is “most of the navigation and info page that was on the left,” leaving users undistracted by the “mostly superfluous details that resided there.” More»

RunMyErrand.com pairs doers with can't-be-bothereds

(NEWSER) - The Internet is often considered a time waster—now it can be a time saver, too. RunMyErrand is a Boston-based startup that has other people do your pesky chores for you, Mashable reports. A typical errand (grocery shopping or returning something to the store, say) costs less than $10. The site is integrated with Facebook and partnered with ZipCar, and is poised to expand beyond Boston to 14 other cities shortly. More»

Members claimed vanity addresses at more than 550 a second

(NEWSER) - Facebook’s offer of personalized URLs drew 500,000 members in 15 minutes after midnight today, Bloomberg reports. “We saw higher than usual traffic,” said a spokesman. “Planning allowed us to handle that traffic well.” The feature, designed to make Google searches easier, allows the site’s 200 million users to name the URL attached to their profiles—but analysts say it could backfire. More»

Writer bemoans the constant barrage of jealousy from Facebook

(NEWSER) - Remember those holiday letters, the ones informing you of all the exciting things your friends did while you sat at home? Facebook brings you that jealousy 24/7, writes Patricia Beauchamp in the Washington Post. While she’s “wondering how much she could get for a box of gaucho pants on eBay,” her friends are skydiving, closing deals with ABC, and “packing for a trip to the international space station.” More»