Facebook Username Landrush. What are Facebook Usernames?

Facebook usernames are an attempt to make Facebook profiles and pages easily shareable. Basically, usernames affect your profile’s URL. For example, the current URL for my Facebook profile is this:

Facebook.com/people/Alec-Renton/234124

Not exactly the easiest URL to share in the world. After today though, my Facebook URL will be as follows:

Facebook.com/Alect-Renton

This is a much easier URL to remember and share with others. It encourages sharing, friending, and increased activity on Facebook. It follows in the footsteps of Twitter and MySpace, both of which offer the vanity URL.

Facebook pages also have the option to register usernames, but as we reported earlier, your page has to have over 1000 fans to quality. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until the end of the month to register a custom URL. If you want to protect your trademark, visit this page to register it with Facebook.

At 12:01 ET/9:01 PT on Friday the 12th of June 2009, users will be able to register a username by visiting Facebook.com/Username. This page will launch with the ability to register a username at that time.

Default choices are variation of your full name, but you can choose your own custom username. However, if someone else has taken it before you, you’re out of luck, so register your URL quickly. Usernames can only have numbers, letters, and periods, so no special characters or hyphens. Once you have chosen a username, you cannot change it, so choose wisely. Rushing it could result in a mistake that cannot be fixed.