Facebook to Implement User Names

By  |  Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Facebook LogoFacebook announced today that user names will become available at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13. Save the time and date: Legions of homebodies with nothing better to do will be the first in line for the land grab.

If someone wants to find out what I’m up to on Facebook, they have to log in and search for me unless they know the random string of numbers that represents me. Whereas Twitter already has easy to remember user names that people can type into their browser (I’m twitter.com/dcworthington).

This is a welcome improvement, and it complements Facebook’s strategy of focusing more on its users’ stream of events. I’m equally happy that it still requires people to use their full names when they register for an account. That protection adds a measure of trust, which many be one of the reasons why I am not spammed on Facebook. I get spammed on Twitter, and now to a lesser extent, Myspace. Adding user names is that latest of many smart decisions Facebook has made to evolve itself.

 
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5 Comments For This Post

  1. Marc Says:
    June 10th, 2009 at 7:02 am

    I think this a bad idea, and an attempt to mirror Twitter, which hardly anyone actually uses uses [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8089508.stm] . Facebook was always about keeping in touch with REAL people. hence using their real names.

    Sicking to the level of MySpace and Twitter, or even AIM could be its nail in the coffin. I don’t want ChunkyLover58 commenting on my photos, I want to see their name!

  2. Marc Says:
    June 10th, 2009 at 7:03 am

    *Sicking was a typo, I mean sinking.

  3. David Worthington Says:
    June 10th, 2009 at 7:17 am

    well, the value adds that facebook offers beyond the event stream are still there… invites, groups, profiles etc.

  4. @HughBriss Says:
    June 10th, 2009 at 7:37 am

    Marc, what says they can’t still use their real names, it’s just a chance to have a shorter url. If they don’t want to use their real names and you don’t want Chunky/Lover58 commenting on your photos, don’t accept them as a friend.

  5. Marc Says:
    June 10th, 2009 at 10:46 am

    I just think the success of FaceBook is because it’s about real people not internet pseudo names.

1 Trackbacks For This Post

  1. Facebook Takes Another Page from Twitter’s Playbook | Technologizer Says:
    June 25th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    […] this month, Facebook made user names available to its users as a replacement for the random string of numbers that used to represent people. These […]