Over the last week, you've probably seen this notice about Facebook usernames at the top of your Facebook home page.

If you haven't had a chance to figure out what it's all about, here's the "For Luddites" explanation, as well as my thoughts on the value (or lack thereof) of this new feature.

What is a username?

In Facebook's case, this is what I would actually call a personal URL, rather than a username (because the latter won't show up anywhere except your URL, as far as I can tell). In any case, right now, if you wanted to send a link to your profile page in an e-mail to a friend, say, it would look something like this:

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8432250xx

If you sign up for a username, and your real name is Anne Shirley, you could choose this URL instead:

www.facebook.com/anneshirley

OR you could choose one of these:

www.facebook.com/anne.shirley, www.facebook.com/ashirley, or www.facebook.com/annes.

For that matter, you could choose...:

www.facebook.com/xcyapqk

... but I'm not really sure what good that would do anyone.

What's the point?

From a personal profile point of view, I'm not really sure there is one. My understanding is that MySpace does this, but I don't use it, so am not really sure what value those users find from this. In the case of Facebook, here's why I don't see it as all that helpful/necessary.

The theory behind it is that it will help you find your friends faster. You've probably had the experience before of thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder if my friend, Jane Smith, is on Facebook." Then you search on Jane, and get a bajillion results and you have no way of knowing which of these is your friend, especially if she hasn't allowed her photo to show up in search results. (Usually, the only other info you can see is the person's networks, but I'm thinking there may be more than one Jane Smith is a given city or at a given school.)

So having more info to differentiate between all the Janes would certainly be helpful. But I don't see usernames as the way to do that. For one thing, if you knew Jane's username, you wouldn't need to search for her in the first place. You would just type in the URL and then use the page that comes up to send a friend request to her.

But let's say you don't know her username and you do a search. At this point, I'm not really sure if that's another piece of info that will come up in the results. But, even if it does, you'll probably see one person's username as www.facebook.com/janedoe, another as www.facebook.com/jane.doe, another as www.facebook.com/jdoe, etc. Is that going to help you identify your friend any easier? I don't think so.

So from my point of view, I'm not currently seeing a lot of value in this for individuals. (If you have a different opinion, feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to update this post.)

On the other hand, I don't see any real downside to having one, so I'm not discouraging anyone from signing up if they want to.

What about for public profiles?

Facebook will also allow organizations' Pages to have usernames and I think there is a benefit there. Not in terms of finding the Page within Facebook so much, but if you publicize it in other places, like on your website, in a newsletter, on a sign, etc.

For example, the current URL for my Tech for Luddites page is:

www.facebook.com/pages/Tech-For-Luddites/69818843344

That doesn't exactly roll of the tongue. :) If I were trying to advertise it somewhere, I would certainly think www.facebook.com/techforluddites would be a lot more memorable. (Pages can be seen by non-Facebook members as well, so you would definitely want something easy for those people to find, since they wouldn't be seeing it on other people's profiles or discover it in other ways that members learn about Pages.)

So if you are administering a Page, I would definitely recommend you get a username. Unfortunately, if you had fewer than 1,000 fans as of May 31st, you won't be eligible for one, so that will leave a lot of pages out (mine included!). Update 6/15/09: If your Page has fewer than 1,000 fans, you will be able to sign up for one as of June 28th.

Note that your username must have a minimum of five characters and may only be a combination of letters, numbers, and a period. This could be a problem for some Pages. For example, I administer one where its full name is a bit too long to be useful, but the most logical shortform to use would be its acronym, which is only four letters long, so therefore not valid. It would actually be hard to come up with something that's both meaningful and easy to remember with these restrictions.

Update 6/15/09: The period in the username is actually ignored. So, if you register anneshirley, you'll also automatically have anne.shirley. And any combination of upper-and lower-class characters will also work.

How do you get a username?

If you've decided to get a username for yourself or any Pages that you administer, you can sign up for one by going to www.facebook.com/username any time after midnight (Eastern time) tonight. (Well, after 12:01 a.m. to be precise.)

For more information about how the program works, rules and restrictions, etc., visit the Facebook blog entry or FAQ page.

So, how can this go wrong?

Oh so many ways...

I'm fully expecting to see lots of problems and related complaints starting about, oh, 12:02 a.m. tomorrow morning. There will be lots of people wanting the same name, but of course, only one will get it. You can't change your username—EVER—once you've selected one. People aren't going to read all the rules up front so will have their usernames refused and won't know why (for example, if you joined FB after June 9th, you have to wait until June 13th or 28th—the FAQ has both dates listed—to apply for one... something to do with preventing people from cybersquatting). I'll also be interested to see if there's going to be any kind of server load issue when everyone who wants one tries to sign up as soon as it's available. And I'm sure there are lots more I haven't even thought of...

Ah, but what would the launch of a new Facebook feature be if it didn't cause a public outcry? :)

Posted in Facebook,How To,My Two Cents,Social Media