Google+ vanity URLs & icons for your site

July 5, 2011 Written by:Ben Greenwood - SEO & Social Media Consultant Filed under:General

A couple of handy Google+ sites for you to play with:

http://www.gplus.to/

For shortened/vanity URLs like this: gplus.to/username

Your nickname is the username
Your Google+ ID is the long number in your address bar

To add a useful Google+ icon to your website or blog, download all of the icons here.

A Chrome extension, Facebook Friends Exporter, allowed you to transfer your contacts from Facebook to Google+ but Facebook have now blocked this. The extension has been around for a while but with the arrival of Google+, Facebook decided to block access to the extension. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy rivalry eh?

Link:

Quangl89

I type a wrong nickname, how can I change it now?
claironeill

I don't think it's possible as you cannot use a Google+ ID twice
http://www.kaydinsdale.co.uk Kay Dinsdale

It's important to mention this is not an official Google+ service. I got mine right before I read this, perhaps you should give it a scan (and perhaps update this post with a word of caution?): http://knowem.com/blog/2011/07...

Happy Friday
claironeill

Hiya Kay,

Thanks for the comment. We understand the site isn't related to Google in any way but it's not in any way dangerous, you don't need to log into Google+ to access your shortened URL. The only issue is that someone else could enter your Google+ ID, which is a fault with the service.
http://www.kaydinsdale.co.uk Kay Dinsdale

Yes, someone could enter your Google ID, which is why I claimed mine but there is another issue which relates to the owner of this shortening service and the trust element with regard to it not being owned, recommended or partnered by Google+.

This service has been set up by an individual and whoever has control of this service (now or in the future) can at any point change the redirects so they point elsewhere. I'm not saying the creator has this intention but there certainly is potential for danger considering the types of sites the vanity urls *could* be redirected to in the wrong hands. Phishing sites, gambling urls, etc…

People do need to be fully aware this is not an official product and as such Google has no control over how that service is used. If people start to use an (unofficial) vanity URL as a matter of course over a long period of time there would have a lot of damage limitation work to do if it was to t*ts up.
claironeill

Yes, fully understand your point. They have now changed the design so it doesn't look so… Googley.