Twitter's 6-second video-sharing app Vine makes it super simple to make new videos, but not so easy to find old ones. That's about to change.
On Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific time, Twitter is opening up vanity URLs for Vine profiles. Verified Twitter users will get the first crack at registering their names—Vine is automatically reserving verified Twitter handles, but you'll still have to sign in and claim your name. Want a name on Vine that's different from the handle you use on Twitter? You can do that, as long as the name you want isn't already reserved for a verified user. Vanity URL registration will open up to all other Vine users, informally known as "the riff-raff," on Monday.
How to register: Go to vine.co tomorrow (or Monday) and log in. Vine will provide the rest of the instructions.
Vanity URLs make it easier to find users, and in the case of Vine, the move will finally create profile pages people can navigate to: vine.co/yourusername. Facebook did it in 2009. Google+ finally opened up custom URLs in October. Vine has been inextricably linked to its app since it launched in January, so vanity URLs also show the service is developing legs for the Web and becoming a little more independent of Twitter.
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