Why wouldn't they just say, "Click here to pay with Bitcoin" and that link would then open up the URI or wallet software? 

I had thought about a system like that earlier- it's in one of forum posts. The trick is- what does the magic of "upon clicking, a form is generated"? A phone book like DNS? Some sort of hash? It's difficult to say.

The only main function of the site to generate and maintain the newly created vanity names, matching them up to actual addresses. It can even be accomplished without logging in, for the user would just send a micropayment to the site proving he has control of that address.

If a user wants to change the Bitcoin address by keep their desired vanity address, they would need to send two micropayments; one from the original and one from the new address.

I'm not sure if I addressed your question(s). I'm just thinking this out on the fly.

~Bruno K~

So, what your proposing isn't a vanity address in the usual sense (someone spends an unfathomable amount of gpu cycles trying to brute force an actual bitcoin address that meets their criteria), but rather a site where someone can register a string (an "address") and associate with an actual bitcoin address? Then a customer could go to the site to make a payment using just the string?

It seems like a simple enough idea, but like someone said above, I'm not sure what the benefits would be over having a "Click here to pay!" link on a website would be. Also, bitcoin's regular address scheme handles typos with checksums and such, how would this site prevent typos? If Google registered "Google" on the site, what's to stop a scammer from registering "Googel" to point to their own personal bitcoin address?

Your assessment (in bold above) is correct, but the site doesn't handle any distributions of funds.

From the great comments to date, I may have to rethink this idea a tad. I see that most aspects have been covered in some way or another.

The key idea I was trying to incorporate is the personal aspect via a custom self-generated address.

Please enter your Bitcoin address or BVA below:

^{______________________________________}
| FrankLazoo@(983)401-8872             |
|________________________________|

The BVA matches 15cULo1jnCreXk8xGrvyRkSb7PtMbGFwbd. If this is correct, please press

The user could even have the option of inputting as much or as little information to coincide with his unique identity.

Or they can attach this to their about me pages on all their social network sites.

Like I've stated, I'm just thinking to the nth degree here.

~Bruno K~

EDIT: MYBVA.ME (mybva.me) is available.

You are correct, 2112, but I was just showing examples for example sake. If by chance such a site were built, and phone numbers were to become part of vanity addresses, that concern would most likely be addressed.

As far as for the length of a vanity address being maxed at 40(?), the other extreme could easily be 5(?).

Imagine the following BVAs:

BadBear
demonoid
eurovps

Or just a full name:

TerryWright
BobFoote
BeckyLong
EricVonSustern

Hell, an actual domain name could be the BVA:

kens5.com
coachella.com
primitiveshoes.com
crazyforcows.com
bayliner.com
nrafoundation.org

Sorry, but humans shouldn't ever see a Bitcoin address at all.

In my opinion it is even wrong that we call it an address, as it implies it is a fixed identifier for a destination at which people accept coins. It's just a code for a public key, and if possible, it shouldn't even be reused (*).

Bitcoin addresses should be things like e-mail addresses or URI's, where the actual public key used for the transaction is negotiated and generated on-the-fly.

(*) I know I have a fixed donation address below, which contradicts my idea, but for now it seems no usable alternative is available.

culo means ass in italian 

A company could run a website that acts as an address lookup/registry service. It would work like this:

 - For a small BTC fee, users can register a string to a BTC address (or pool of BTC addresses)

 - A pool of strings can be pointed to a pool of BTC addresses, with random or sequential selection. One time BTC address use can also work. Ex. Google can direct "Google," "Googel," etc to a pool of one-time use BTC addresses. They must replenish the pool if it runs out. Site could auto-generate addresses but that requires some trust.

 - (Optional) If user pays fee with the registered BTC address, the account is "verified." This can be used to display some sort of notification to payers

 - A simple API allows apps to do an address lookup (forward or reverse) and receive an XML reply. The reply could optionally be signed by the priv key of BTC address owner to eliminate trust issues (prevents site from inserting wrong address, would require publishing pub key of the address).

- The API functionality would also need to be available through the website.

 - Fees would be in place for associating a new string. There could be some pricing structure for bulk string association. Expiration and renewal fees would be needed as well to mitigate squatting. The goal would be to make it cheap for someone to register and hold a few dozen strings, but expensive to register hundreds or more.

 - The site could also be used for QR code, Facebook, Twitter, etc association.

 - The business model would likely benefit from a freemium system. Ex user can register one string to one address for free that expires after some time. If they want more or want to do a pool of strings -> pool of addresses, they need to pay for the registry.

That's all I can think of now but it seems like if someone invested the time to develop it, they would have a good chance of profitability as well as contributing a valuable tool to the BTC community.