UAE residents have joined millions of people in a global rush to claim personalised internet addresses for their Facebook pages.
The social networking site has 200 million members and consistently rates in the top 10 most-visited websites in the UAE.
Previously, internet addresses for members' profile pages on the website consisted only of random series of numbers as a suffix to facebook.com.
From Saturday, Facebook began what was dubbed by the media as a digital turf stampede by offering what is known as vanity URLs or web addresses - the chance to personalise the web address by using real names or nicknames as the web suffix.
For example, Joe Smith's profile could be accessed quickly at www.facebook.com/joe, instead of ploughing through thousands of Joe Smiths listed on the site.
More than six million people have taken up the new option, including many in the UAE who grabbed suffixes such as facebook.com/emirati and /alnahyan and /dubaiboy.
Others from outside the UAE registered suffixes such as facebook.com/zayed and /maktoum, /sheikh, /Sheikha and /Bedouin.
Some names have already begun appearing for resale, although apparently no bids have been made yet.
Facebook.com/dubaigirl has been put up for sale on assetize.com, an auction website for those who wish to buy or sell online accounts.
DubaiGirl was listed on Facebook as belonging to Dave Davy, who, when contacted by e-mail by The National, said the online identity was available for a "generous bid".
"I was getting this username for someone as a gift but I found out that she got a special one and would like to keep it," Dave Davy wrote.
"So, after that and while I was surfing the net I stumbled upon some article about a FB [Facebook] username that is considered to be a smart choice and desirable and from there I was referred to assetize.com.
"I just posted it to see what a cool username like DubaiGirl would be worth."
One day after offering to sell facebook.com/dubaigirl on assetize.com, no bids had been made. But by then the listing for the page's originator had changed to Sarah Davy.
When contacted again, Davy wrote: "I'm a female. Actually I'm Egyptian studying in Wollongong, Australia, and I visited Dubai many times on my way to Egypt for vacations."
Facebook blocked thousands of potential suffixes before offering personalised internet addresses, aiming to avoid concerns that people would grab names belonging to trademarked companies or products, a practice known as cybersquatting.
Even so, some users claimed the suffixes including /larrypage and /Sergey.Brin - the names of Google's founders ? and /schwarzenegger, /limbaugh, /republicanparty and even facebook.com/Ahmadinejad.
jhenzell@thenational.ae
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Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed.
Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
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Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
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Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg:
Juventus 1 Ajax 2
Ajax advance 3-2 on aggregate
The squad traveling to Brazil:
Faisal Al Ketbi, Ibrahim Al Hosani, Khalfan Humaid Balhol, Khalifa Saeed Al Suwaidi, Mubarak Basharhil, Obaid Salem Al Nuaimi, Saeed Juma Al Mazrouei, Saoud Abdulla Al Hammadi, Taleb Al Kirbi, Yahia Mansour Al Hammadi, Zayed Al Kaabi, Zayed Saif Al Mansoori, Saaid Haj Hamdou, Hamad Saeed Al Nuaimi. Coaches Roberto Lima and Alex Paz.
