Usernames Will Kill Facebook

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...another old dude, that doesn't understand that just becuase Google can see that your Facebook profile exists, doesn't mean that it can see everything on it.
Not understanding how to use privacy settings, and then publishing an article like this, makes you look like a top notch goon.
If one knows what one is doing on Facebook, one can have one's family and employers as friends, and still put those drunken crotch shots online without embarrassing oneself any more than one did when they were taken. It's not something I would recommend doing, but it is possible, if one doesn't ignore the privacy settings like the bumbling writer of this article did, one can be perfectly safe on Facebook from the clutches of the internet. In fact, most of your information is completely hidden by default, so if they aren't your "friend", the general public isn't going to see very much about you at all, even if they have your "username".

n/a of CT 6:35PM July 31, 2009

You don't understand things like Facebook and Twitter because you're mature and know how to behave like such. There are actually people in their FORTIES who use these sites and have absolutely no clue how idiotic they look.

TK of FL 3:24AM June 14, 2009

What a callous remark! Thanks to the insensitivity of public characters like yourself "old ladies" mean zero. In our extremely fragile economic situation the elderly are relegated to less importance than the family dog. Very likely those "old ladies" are too poor or overlooked by family or social services to hope for such a high-tech luxury as TV.
You and your loved ones are walking down the same path. As fortunes rise and fall, you may well end the same way unless you use your public position to raise societal awareness of the economic invitation to tragedy that beckons to all us travelers whether we feel as smug as yourself or not.

Winona M Lineberger of CA 10:12AM June 13, 2009

1 These vanity id's simply make it easier for your friends and business assocuates to find you on Facebook. Profiles still remain private if a user so selects. Previously, a very long URL was the only ID available. LinkedIn provides a vanity URL already. So, this is not going to cause a sudden FB irrelevance.
2. The restriction of 1,000 is for pages, not profiles of regular users. So, all FB users have access to a vanity name.
3. Therefore, this predicted demise is very misguided. FB wild popularity will continue and only be enhanced.

DMC of CA 2:10AM June 13, 2009

I AM A VERY OLD LADY. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THESE THINGS ARE SO WONDERFUL. PLEASE EXPLAIN.

HATTIE of CA 1:06AM June 13, 2009

R.I.P.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 10:01PM June 12, 2009

Lame article.
That is all.

Chris of NY 9:52PM June 12, 2009

This evening while closely reading the Facebook FAQ regarding the ability to create a username that is appended to the Facebook URL, I also noticed the 1000 fan requirement. If you look closely they will eliminate this requirement by the end of this month. I believe this is to give the major brand holders a chance to claim their rightful names to minimize name squatters.
I ran into a problem as I maintain a site called http://www.ereader-pricesandreviews.com that I wanted to add as my user name but Facebook requires your new username to be closely associated to your current real name that you used to sign up with Facebook initially. Since in my case I only have a personal Facebook account, I cannot use my website name for the new username. If someone has a real name such as John Flowers or Joseph Pizza, Flowers or Pizza in the username would be equivalent to winning the lottery as that could be valuable for advertising purposes when found in a Google search result! They have also closed the registration of new Facebook accounts for a period of time, I think a few weeks also to prevent a "land grab" of multiple accounts and usernames. In the case of business Facebook accounts, they are allowing trademarked and proprietary words to be protected by the owners. They also have an infringement form that a user can submit to protect their rights on a trademarked or proprietary name.

Kenny Lee of NY 8:45PM June 12, 2009

Keep in mind that people's profiles will still be privacy protected, all the settings each user sets will remain the same. There's also the option of removing your profile from public searches on sites other than Facebook, in the privacy settings page under "public search listing". I don't understand why people don't get this.

anela 7:46PM June 12, 2009