Facebook Didn't Make Money on Vanity URLs, Because, Well, No One Does

(MoneyWatch)  Here's the newest reason for companies in social media not to make money: because their competitors don't, so they shouldn't either.

That's the down-low from Nicholas Carlson's latest post over at Silicon Alley Insider as to why Facebook didn't hold an auction or seek other kinds of compensation in exchange for the vanity URLs it started to dispense on Saturday. (There were a few logistical concerns as well, but Carlson says Facebook got "hard pushback" from users who whined -- my word -- that they don't pay for the vanity URLs they get from other services like MySpace and Twitter.)

In my view, they should all charge, but I get Facebook's point, to a degree. Execs there are probably suffering from user-revolt fatigue at this point, and the thought of encountering another one could definitely lead to a quick retreat from the notion that since vanity URLs are worth something, maybe people should pay for them.

But it's sad really. At this rate, you wonder what users actually would pay for. I, as you might have guessed, would pay for a vanity URL. The easiest version for people to remember of my relatively generic name is Cathy Taylor, but, since that vanity URL seems to have been taken by about 12:02 a.m. on Saturday, I got stuck with the one in which my full first name is spelled out, which people spell wrong more than they spell it right. Alas -- facebook.com/catharine.p.taylor, it is. Sigh.

I'm currently reading an advance copy of Chris Anderson's "Free: The Future of a Radical Price." Maybe he can explain all this to me because I don't get it.

Previous coverage of social media monetization issues at BNET Media:

• A YouTube Monetization Model that Does Nothing for YouTube
• Facebook Turns Back on Making Money ... Again
• Does Facebook Connect Connect Facebook to Revenue?