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I want to register a custom URL for my Google+ page (I'm eligible)

I have some questions.

  1. Suppose my page name is John Doe. Google forces me to have google.com/+JohnDoe + some extra characters in my choice. google.com/+JohnDoe isn't registered, why can't I directly register that?
  2. Custom URLs are case-sensitive?
  3. Would the old plus.google.com/5432503297532095473210197 address still be accessible? Because of that note in the agreement which says "the service could become a paid extra in the future", I'd like to continue linking on websites the old, long and impossible to remember address.
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  1. There could be a couple of reasons why the name you want is not available. Maybe it's too common. Maybe it's the same name as someone famous. Maybe someone else with that name has more followers/posts/been on Google+ longer/is more "valuable" to Google, and Google is reserving the name for them.
  2. Custom URLs aren't case sensitive. In fact, you can edit the URL to change the case of the letters in the URL when it's displayed.
  3. Google is very good about leaving redirects when pages move. I have to believe that that the old stupidly-long number URL will still work in the future, even if it results in a redirect. (Actually, I've just tested it with my old gplus.to address which pointed to the number URL, and it redirected to my G+ custom URL.

I see now you're referring to a G+ page. From what I'm seeing the Customer URL choice you have is based on the verified website URL and (right now) you can't change it.

Some more information in this G+ post.

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  • But it's normal that it must be name+surname? Can't be anything else? – Magnetic_dud Nov 7 '13 at 23:58
  • I don't see anything in the ToS or custom URL policy that says that. They do want to make sure that pages for entities point to the right place (so you can't use "+Microsoft" for instance). And, I expect, they want to make sure that a user profile is actually for a human and not some entity; most people will have a given name and a surname, so it wouldn't surprise me that they'll require you to use a custom URL that matches the name you've been using on your profile. – ale Nov 8 '13 at 1:00
  • Because the first part of the URL (my name+surname) is greyed out and uneditable, and then they require me to add some other characters – Magnetic_dud Nov 8 '13 at 10:29
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A simple workaround i did, was go to Profile -> Click on Name and edit with the first and last name (first+last) combining to make the URL you need and leave out a few characters from the last name.

Once completed, try the Get URL and it will populate with the first+last and you can give the remaining characters to fulfil the need of additional characters, and getting the URL you need.

I wanted "sengopal". So i gave the first and last name as "sen" and "gop". And in the Get URL popup, provided "al" as the additional characters reserving "+sengopal" for me :)

Hope this helps!!!

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