Sometime last week, a few of us at the studio were wondering how we might procure a vanity URL to replace the 21-digit ID our Google+ profile currently has.

The thought process being that if we had something more manageable like plus.google.com/bravodesigninc, it’d be easier to share on assets (e.g., on printed materials like business cards, stationary, etc.) or over the phone.

After some digging, I found that Google rolled out vanity URLs for verified pages in August of last year, but that they weren’t made available to all G+ users. I’m late to yet another party. Initially, Google had indicated that it “should be available to many more of your business pages over time.” Ten months later, that isn’t really the case, even for household brands.

Coca-Cola (989,781 G+ followers) and The Coca-Cola Company (4,774 G+ followers) each have their vanity URLs. Pepsi (703,818 G+ followers) does not.

When searching for PepsiCo, I found this:

And since people and pages are grouped together in +search, it goes on and on and on.

Six sites, three “official ones.” Seems legit. I’ll get to that momentarily. Using Google, I searched for the Pepsi Company which populated a G+ profile in the site’s metadata/link section.

Here it is:

Womp, womp. Each of the unofficial “official” pages has more followers.

What threw me for a loop is that when I went back to see if I had set up the Bravo Design, Inc. G+ page correctly, I found that I can create what seems like an unlimited number of Google+ profile pages despite the fact that a verified listing already exists with a vetted phone number that corresponds to our local listing. Not cool, Google. I can only imagine that the ability for random people to create profiles using your brand name at will would be a vulnerability.

Unlike Twitter, which allows parody accounts, Google has a ban on all pseudonyms used on G+ profiles, and they’ll suspend you if they catch you. Tell that to the 300 PepsiCo profiles.

Brandjacking happens when “someone acquires or otherwise assumes the online identity of another entity for the purposes of acquiring that person’s or business’s brand equity.” An example of such would be if I hypothetically pretended to be 50 Cent, borrowed [read: stole] part of his following and used it draw attention to my own personal causes (e.g., distributing my mix tape).

Notably, it has happened to Starbucks, Nestle, Exxon and British Petroleum.

Bank of America was infamously brandjacked on G+ when a satire page was created advertising its “new” slogan: “We took your bailout money, and your mortgage rates are going up.” While obviously a fraud, it stayed online for a week before being pulled. I don’t know how that could have possibly happened. But reputation risks aside, knock off pages could include redirects for phishing purposes or to spread malware.

We recommend verifying your G+ business page. All you have to do is add a G+ badge or snippet of code to your page, request a PIN if you have a Local page and fill out an application online. It’s pretty painless. This won’t stop someone from setting up G+ pages with your name, and it won’t guarantee you the option to claim a vanity URL in the near future, but it’ll help differentiate your verified page from an imposter if both come up in a search query.

Just for kicks: another site that has a vanity URL is K-Mart. Its competitors, Target and Walmart, do not. In-and-Out, Burger King, McDonald’s and Jack in the Box don’t. Wendy’s does. Wendy’s. There is no justice in this world. Just kidding. Kind of.

To follow us on Google+ and/or come up with ideas to create an imitation Bravo Design, Inc. profile: click here.