New Facebook Options

June 10, 2009
Facebook to Give Out User Names at Midnight EST Friday Night
You might need to get home early from the clubs on Friday night. At midnight, Facebook begins giving out user names and you'll want to act fast if you want a popular one or just one that's related to your name. With 200 million members across the globe, it's quite likely the one you want will be grabbed up quick.

If you're brand new to Facebook, meaning you've signed up since May 31, you might be out of luck. Those members are being restricted due to Facebook's desire to quash the squatters who will inevitably be out there to take up all the good names just to do nothing with them (yeah, I'm looking at you, dude with 1,000 domains).

Also, you better really love the name you've chosen because once you have it, you can't change it or transfer it. I sincerely hope they make exceptions for single ladies who eventually get married because we married ladies know what a pain in the you-know-where it is to change our last names. Google still refers to me as my maiden name, despite my name changing efforts. (You know men come up with these rules, right?)

Will you be sitting at your computer with a Red Bull on midnight? Or do you not care (especially since FB profiles are so private)? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 10, 2009 11:42 AM



Related Reading
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Market Share[Search Engine Marketing]
Contacting Search Engine Watch Suggested Searches
search engine watch - different numbers - quick question - search industry trends - better positioning


Comments
Yes, I've just seen the announcement on Facebook - just as I'm setting up a page for my company's client :) Obvious there is no way we can currently fix a custom URL for them.

I will "fix" the username for myself since I did the same on LinkedIn and some other places, thus it makes sense. But on another note, looking at the examples of usernames they gave on Facebook blog, the feature is pretty useless. Consider a name "William Thomas" or "Mary Smith": how many variants can you offer to a user, and how "unique" are they going to feel?

BTW, I loved your comment about name-changing for women - so true!!

Our view on the company blog.

Julia June 10, 2009 12:21 PM

I consider Facebook a criminal company, considering that they ask you to fill in your email account password (!) to register. For the sake of scanning your contact list and sending them invites.

So not only can they read all your email from then on, but they also have all email addresses of all your friends.

Don't understand people willing to be part of such a thing, let alone being excited about it.

Joopbraak June 10, 2009 1:08 PM

Julia, you are not forced to provide them with email username and password, it's mearly a means to be able to search through all your contacts for those with accounts. you have the option of skipping that step.

seamus June 10, 2009 2:21 PM

Does anyone know if this is going into effect on non-personal pages, like a business page?

Dillon June 10, 2009 2:50 PM

@seamus - thanks a lot! :-)

Just to say that the name of the poster on this blog is published sort of "within" the entry, so my entry is the first, and you were actually replying to Joopbraak. As for me, I always skip the step of adding my email account to find other people - either I already know who is on a network I want to join, or I don't mind searching for them or mentioning in person/in email/in chat that we can connect via a network.

@Joopbraak - your comment concerns the question of privacy, and the thinkers are debating it ardently. I've come across people who work in digital and who don't have a FB account. For myself, I don't use it much, and certainly not as personally as many other people do. But considering that email is much more personal, people may be more willing to communicate via a network, and in my experience Facebook was great for it. Simply by way of giving the example: Twitter and Facebook helped me to write this post on the blog about Amsterdam bed-in's anniversary. I think the bottom line is to know the rules of the network and the expectations of its owner(s) and then to use them to your advantage.

Julia June 10, 2009 2:54 PM

Post a comment

Name:


Email Address:


URL:
Remember Me? YesNo


Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)





White Papers
eStara Click to Chat - Drive More Sales & Better Customer Service with...
The outlook is clear — people will continue... Foreclosures.com Locks in Higher Sales with McAfee SECURE Service
Learn how Foreclosures.com differentiates itself... Email Marketing Goes Social
While the World Wide Web continues to generate... White Papers