Changes on Facebook

Categories: Facebook — admin at 3:43 pm

A couple of things of things that developers and marketers should be aware in regards to changes on Facebook.

Vanity URL for Facebook
Since June 13, existing Facebook users ahve been able to claim a personalized vanity Uniform Resource Locator (URL) pointing to their regular existing profile page. Millions of users have already registered vanity URL’s. Page owners can do the same, with the caveat that (currently) only pages with 1000 or more fans are allowed to register vanity URL’s in this way.
Brand Owners Get to Register their Trademarks
To prevent URL squatters and the legal mess that quickly follows. Facebook is allowing owners of existing registered trademarks to protect them. Rights holders interested in protecting the use of their existing registered trademarks may visit: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights
Facebook User ID’s have Changed
Preparing for continued growth, Facebook is issuing larger ID’s to certain new users. In the past most Facebook ID’s were 10 or less digits (easily handled by an INT field in your database). This week as part of our testing for a new game we helped developed, we noticed 15 digit ID’s (100000027051821), which CANNOT be handled well by an INT field and require a BIGINT field. Developers who are noticing odd behavior (users not being able to save preferences or the creating of duplicate records in your user table), will need to modify their databases.