We’d known it was coming for a few days, and many people were counting down the hours until the event occurred. But in the end the Facebook username gold rush went off without a hitch, with very little drama and almost no interruption to the service. In fact, it’s only now that the real fun begins.

Facebook had been thinking about introducing usernames, or vanity URLs, for some time, but eventually decided to do so this week. They announced the news just four days ahead of time, probably to prevent an overzealous mainstream rush, with just the most geekiest of us really bothering to stay up late to grab our first choice.

Before the main gold rush occurred, it came to light that “key journalists” and Facebook partners had been given a leg up in the process and offered a chance to grab their username early. Being a mere blogger meant I didn’t qualify for this distinction and I had to fight the rest of the devoted for my chosen moniker.

The gold rush began at 12 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, which for me was 5 a.m. Yes, I stayed up, and yes, I’m quite sad. Facebook has 200 million plus members at the current time but only about 500,000 of those, or 0.25 percent, bothered choosing a username in the first 15 minutes they were available. That’s still 550 people a second but it’s clear the average Facebook user really wasn’t too bothered.

So the event occurred without any hiccups, but now the real fun may begin. I bore witness to one well-known face (Darren Rowse) gazumped to his brand (/problogger) by one of his (former) friends. And Rowse is unlikely to be the only person with a name, reputation, or business to protect that finds their username being cyber-squatted.

The Times points out that /princecharles was nabbed by Charlie Nordholm from Hawaii, while no one had even bothered to grab British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name. So if you fancy /gordonbrown get it while you can.

Facebook did try to prevent cyberquatting by blocking new accounts from registering for a username and stating that the chosen vanity URL is for life. But that clearly hasn’t stopped thousands of people from chancing their arm. Facebook users found to have infringed on someone’s name or on a company’s trademark will likely have their account deleted.

I sense Facebook is going to have a busy few weeks sorting out disputes.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 2:23 am under Internet, Legal, Opinion, Social Media.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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