Social networks are increasingly becoming a method of communicating with celebrities and friends. Sure, the odds of a celebrity responding to you are disappointingly slim, but the possibility remains there.
Google+ is trying to introduce more functionality for celebrities and those generally famous enough to warrant a clear persona, via vanity URLs. It'll become a more common feature in the future, according to part of their update.
While we're not quite ready for everyone to start claiming their own custom URLs, we plan to expand the availability over time.
Facebook has had a similar system for some time now, and it can be useful for some situations. Some of the first accounts to have vanity URLs are Aussie actor Hugh Jackman, David Beckham, Toyota, and Hugo Boss. If you look at their URLs you'll notice that they aren't just an anonymous number. For some people this is going to be an appealing to chance. For others it's going to be a non-issue.
It's worth pointing out that these custom URLs are not only for internationally famous people or companies. Brazilian company Epoca proves the international possibilities of the vanity URLs. If you're a celebrity / PR and you maintain a Google+ account, then you might like to check if you're eligible for a new URL.
These URLs should be useful for people interested in finding more corporate or famous accounts to follow on Google+. Since the service launched last year it hasn't had the same traffic as other social networks, but with these features appearing it seems like Google are committed to improvement.
Source: Google+'s official Google+
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