• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 29, 2013

Facebook on Wednesday introduced verified pages to help users find the official presence of popular brands, celebrities and other high-profile people on the social network. The verified accounts will be labeled with a small blue icon with a check mark next to their name on timelines, in search results, and elsewhere on Facebook.

Besides fan pages, the update is also rolling out to individual profiles. Page owners can’t request to have their accounts verified. Rather, Facebook is proactively verifying the pages and profiles with the largest audiences. While users can’t ask to get their accounts verified, they can report other pages or profiles trying to impersonate them.

Top brands on Facebook including Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Disney and Pepsi are among those with authenticated accounts. Twitter set up verified accounts a few years back to prevent imposters from  posing as celebrities on the microblogging service.