Because numbers are impersonal and the shorter and "nicer" they are, the easier they are to remember, market for short ICQ numbers was huge and phishing and hac

Because numbers are impersonal and the shorter and "nicer" they are, the easier they are to remember, market for short ICQ numbers was huge and phishing and hacking for these went rampant. It was a terrible system, the worst, really. Usernames aren't a problem, discoverability is. Vanity IDs aren't a problem as well, but an opportunity and they are being sold either for money (registered trademarks, "lucky" phone numbers, short or custom license plates) or engagement (Facebook's vanity URLs for pages). Vanity id shouldn't affect discoverability and it really doesn't these days. Do Nimble CRM's customers have confusion by @nimble on Pinterest being taken by the Author? Don't think so. pornhub.com ha more traffic than sex.com and doesn't seem to be bothered.