I wrote this story today for the print edition of the Connecticut Post, and wanted to share it with you:
Facebook is introducing a feature to the popular social media Web site early Saturday that has some users up in arms.
Members will have the opportunity to choose a username for their account on a first-come, first serve basis beginning at 12:01 a.m.
Larry Yu, a spokesman for Facebook, said the change will improve user experiences.
“It creates a short, easy-to-remember URL for people to share with friends, family and co-workers,” he said. “It also makes it easier for people to find the person they are looking for.”
Not all users agree the development is a step in the right direction.
“It will make everything on Facebook more complicated,” said Patrick Flynn, 17, of Monroe. “I don’t want to deal with any other way of identifying myself than my real name.”
Dan Lipsitz, 18, of Easton, said he thinks Facebook is moving away from its roots.
“It’s becoming too much like MySpace,” the New York University sophomore said.
Now, a user’s Facebook page is accessible by entering a randomly generated series of numbers. My profile, for example, could be accessed by entering www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=24200103. However, beginning Saturday it will be accessible by simply entering www.facebook.com/username.
Other social networking sites, like LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace, have been giving users this option for years.
“People can enter a Facebook username as a search term on Facebook or a popular search engine like Google, for example, which will make it much easier for people to find friends with common names,” Yu said. “Others may simply like the idea that they can share the URL with friends rather than have friends search for them.”
Richard Hanley, graduate journalism director at Quinnipiac University, said he is not surprised to hear opposition.
“This always happens with technology,” he said. “People think it is the end of something.”
However, he said it is just the opposite.
“An advancement that opens up something to more people is a good thing,” Hanley said. “It will help Facebook to grow. When you open up more people to it, you expand your social networking circles.”
He said the vast majority of Facebook users do not care about the technology behind it, but there is a tendency of users to complain about everything.
“Are people going to get the name they want? Probably not, they’re going to have to get creative,” Hanley said. “This is an option to proliferate people’s profiles more efficiently. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to do it.”
He said if he can’t get his name, he is not going to select a username.
However, Hanley said it would be great for marketing folks to be able to list their Facebook URL alongside that of their resume and Twitter page.
Mark Barber, 25, of Shelton, said he thinks the change will be helpful for searching purposes.
“If I meet someone in real life and subsequently decide to friend them on Facebook, it’s sometimes difficult to find them, especially for people with generic names like John Smith,” Barber, who works in marketing in Manhattan, said. “As Facebook’s user base grows exponentially, searches sometimes yield thousands of results. If a user has a unique username, this frustrating problem will be eliminated.”
Barber, who said he intends to stay up late to register his desired username, has a list of back-ups just in case.
“I think the constant tweaks that Facebook continues to make to improve itself is what distinguishes it from stagnating social networking sites like MySpace,” he said. “As more older people join Facebook and as Facebook’s original users age, I believe it’s becoming more frequently [used] for professional purposes.”
Thom Gillespie, interactive communications director at Quinnipiac University, does not think as many people will sign up for usernames as Facebook might hope.
“I don’t see it as the land grab they are hoping for,” he said.
However, what he does anticipate are an influx of legal action.
“I think you are going to see bizarre lawsuits,” Gillespie said. “McDonald’s has always had a billion lawyers that sued anybody who had anything like McDonald’s.”
However, Yu, the Facebook spokesman, said the social networking king is prepared.
There’s a “Preventing the Registration of a Username” form for entering company names on the site.
And Yu said the service reserves the right to restrict or revoke any name for any reason.
