Friends Reunited allows users to create personalised URLs

LONDON - Friends Reunited has launched a function whereby members can choose their own URL and link it to their profile page.

The move means that users are able to turn their profile page into an easy-to-share webpage, making photos, videos and status updates accessible to friends -- even those who are not members.

, which was earlier this month sold to Dundee-based publisher DC Thomson for £25m by ITV, said the new service has so far been taken up by 20,000 of its users.

By clicking on a "Share your profile page" icon, users can select a username, which will be prefixed with friendsreunited.co.uk. The URL can then be forwarded to their friends.

Jonathan Clark, head of Friends Reunited, said: "It's just one of the initiatives we have in the pipeline  to help members stay in touch with the people that matter to them in a fun, easy and safe way.

"According to our research, mainstream Britain is still sharing lots of photos by email. With your own web address, it's much easier and your friends always know where to find your photos."

Although Friends Reunited faces stiff competition from social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, the service still has over 20m members.

However, many of them are dormant and in July, traffic to the site fell to 1.7m unique users per month.

DC Thomson is based in Dundee and owns Beano and the Dundee Courier. It also owns genealogy website Findmypast.com and plans to combine it with Friends Reunited's family-tree service Genes Reunited.

ITV bought Friends Reunited for £175m in 2005.

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