Facebook users, get ready for the Username Gold Rush. One minute after midnight this Friday night, June 12, members of the popular social networking site will be able to claim a new username that can be used in the address of their profile.
The username will take the place of the string of letters and numbers that currently identify a member’s profile. This “vanity URL” will allow a user to identify their Facebook page as www.facebook.com/youruniquename.
Identity in Web Address
On the company blog, Facebook designer Blaise DiPersia noted Monday that, since the beginning of the social networking site, members have used their real names. But, he noted, the one place “where your identity wasn’t reflected was in the Web address for your profile or the Facebook Pages you administer.”
The URL, he pointed out, was just a randomly assigned number like “id=592952074.” Users will have the same privacy settings for their username as they do for the profile name in Search, and will be able to edit their privacy settings.
Instructions on the user’s home page will explain how to claim a username, as well as suggesting possibilities. Usernames will need to be at least five characters long, including only alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers) or a period, and there is only one username allowed per page. The company said it was looking into supporting non-Romanized characters at some point.
Each name will be unique, which is why the start immediately after midnight on Friday resembles one of the movies where the wagons line up and, at the gun shot, drive as fast as they can to claim land.
That username claiming, as in the days of yore when Web site URLs were first being gobbled up, can result in someone claiming a name that could legally infringe on rights holders, such as…