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What’s in a New Facebook Username?

June 10, 2009
by Jessica E. Vascellaro
Tech Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Jessica E. Vascellaro

This Saturday, Facebook users get to replace the string of numbers Facebook has assigned them as a profile name with a personalized URL based on their real name, or another alias they choose.

This means Facebook users can find each other by remembering the address of a profile–tough to do currently, since profiles are currently in a format like www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12345678. If users have opted to make their profiles public, anyone could get to them by typing in the new URLs too.

What’s the point? Some people want to use their Facebook page like a personal home page, viewable to anyone searching for them. One obstacle now is that many people have the same first and last names, making searching difficult. Facebook says the change will make it easier to find people or businesses through its own site or through Google or other search engines, since the new URLs can be unique and more easily remembered.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Tagged: Facebook, Internet, digital, frontpage, search, social networking, software, , , , , | permalink
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