Facebook Username

tech.blorge.com

Get your thinking caps on because you have just a few days to figure out the vanity URL you want to have associated with your Facebook page. They’re coming, not just for celebrities and well-known people, but for us ordinary people who Facebook has finally decided are deserving of a name rather than a number.

The rumors that have been doing the rounds for a couple of weeks have proved true - Facebook is introducing vanity URLs this Saturday (June 13). From 12:01 a.m. EDT on that day you’ll be given the option to choose a username for your Facebook profile which will then form the URL. So it’ll go from Facebook.com/01010101 to Facebook.com/ilovevanityurls or whatever you want it to be.

There are multiple reasons Facebook is doing this, the first being that there’s been a demand for it, particularly in light of the popularity of Twitter and its vanity URLs. It will also help SEO, help people connect with other easier by simply giving out their Facebook username rather than instructing someone to search for them, and introduce the possibility for @myname type responses to be made. The last of which is likely to turn Facebook more into Twitter than it already is.

Facebook is setting some ground rules on the process. Most importantly, once chosen, the username cannot be changed. Ever. Which means you need to get it right the first time. Unless you fancy setting a new account up and rebuilding your friends list just to get a new username.

Not that you’ll be able to do that for a while. In an attempt to prevent username squatting, Facebook will initially not allow anyone who set an account up after 3 p.m. today to choose a vanity URL. At least for the time being. I suspect it’ll be at least a month or two until the situation changes.

There was early speculation that the vanity URLs would have to be paid for but it looks as though Facebook has decided against charging for the pleasure of being a name rather than a number. Probably because only a tiny minority would have bothered paying the asking price. So free it is, thankfully.
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