Countdown To The Vanity Insanity

Way back in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook at Harvard University. At that time, Facebook had a simple decision to make: should users use their real names or usernames? Facebook chose to former and used a string of associated numbers for your visible URL, instead of a user-generated pseudonym.

Facebook announced earlier this week that they would start offering usernames tomorrow starting 12:01am.

At first blush, it feels like an upheaval of the system.

 

Chris Messina explains why Facebook originally went with real names over usernames. He writes,

[Because] everyone on Facebook has to use their real name (and Facebook will root out and disable accounts with pseudonyms), there's a higher degree of accountability because legitimate users are forced to reveal who they are offline. No more "funnybunny345" or "daveman692" creeping around and leaving harassing wall posts on your profile; you know exactly who left the comment because their name is attached to their account.

But usernames will only exist as "vanity URLs" — easy-to-remember, plain-English web addresses to be printed on a business card or scrawled out on the back of a napkin for a friend. They'll take the form of www.facebook.com/username.

Real names and identities will still remain king among the 200 million users of Facebook. While your username can be anything you want, your online profile and any associated comments are still linked to your real name.

It is much more of a convenience for users, mirroring a strategic move by Google to provide vanity URLs with their profiles.

So, with anonymity not a real problem, things might only turn ugly when people with the same name (think how many John Smith's there are) try to register for a new username. Some are calling it a landrush.

It's first come, first served at the stroke of midnight. Where will you be at that time? And what usernames will you be registering, if any?