
The Future of Facebook Usernames  - boundlessdreamz
http://dashes.com/anil/2009/06/the-future-of-facebook-usernames.html
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Mystalic
When I cover the inevitable "Facebook Usernames Debacle," I'll be sure to
mention repeatedly that you can buy your own domain. Thanks for the reminder
Anil.

And yes, this post is pretty much prophetic.

~~~
endtime
Agreed. Plus, given that Facebook is a pretty standard platform at this point,
it's not unreasonable to think of facebook.com as a sort of prefix-TLD. Sure,
I can go buy a domain, but if all I'd put there is a personal website then a
FU seems simpler. And if I want to protect my name/brand, then I am probably
interested in _every_ such domain-like address I can own, rather than just
one.

~~~
sireat
A bit off topic: FU doesn't seem quite the acronym Facebook would want in
general usage. Or perhaps they have figured it would work great on younger
population...

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sounddust
Owning a domain name sounds like the best choice for one's online identity,
but realistically it's not the best choice for about 198 million out of the
200 million people who use Facebook.

First of all, for many people, the only online presence they have is their
Facebook account. Why would they buy a domain name? So that they can point it
to their Facebook profile?

Secondly, owning a domain costs money and requires work to maintain (a lot of
work if you are not tech-savvy). I'd guess a very small percentage of Facebook
users would be willing to pay $10/year to use the site. So why would someone
expect them to pay $10/year for a domain name?

Finally, what's to say that a facebook vanity URL is not a better choice than
a domain name? Musicians often advertise using their myspace URL because it's
easy to remember than a domain - you only have to remember a single word. It's
entirely possible, depending on the success of Facebook, for people to be
asking each other in 5 years, "what's your facebook address?" as it's easier
than the current method of searching Facebook by name and sifting through 100
people with that name

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rdj
the only problem with this piece is, I have yet to find the mythical "real
domain that you can own". I've leased/rented/licensed/used quite a few domains
over the years, but they each come with some sort of expiration and a threat
that someone else can take the name if I don't pay up.

..and the "Facebook Username Debacle" won't help solve that problem either....

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blogimus
I have yet to find the mythical "real estate you can own" I've leased/rented
and even taken out a mortgage on my condominium, but if I don't pay my condo
fees every month, the association threatens to take my condo away... And if
you don't pay taxes on any real estate, house, condo, or land?...

Yeah, I hate the idea of having to pay each year for my domain names. It
sucks, it feels like we pay too much, but it is probably cheaper than if you
could pay once up front and never have to pay any infrastructure costs.
Imaging the hording and domain name market under those conditions.

So since I can't do anything about it, and I want those domain names, I chalk
it off to infrastructure costs.

~~~
wmf
People have proposed solutions to this problem, like if you own a domain but
stop paying the maintenance fees it will disappear from the DNS (so you can't
use it), but will still appear in WHOIS and you'll still have legal title to
it forever.

Ultimately it's political: Some people believe that domains should be
property, some believe they shouldn't be, and everyone has trouble
understanding the opposing viewpoint.

~~~
boundlessdreamz
That is not a solution at all. What if somebody actually wants to use the
domain? The solution proposed will actually increase domain squatting since
there is no cost involved!

The only problem with domains right now is that it atleast the .com TLD is
controlled by a monopoly and you have price increases. We need to have several
companies who can issue .com domains

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JimmyL
All that's missing on the timeline (probably on Saturday morning, around
lunch) is a blog post by Jason Calacanis about how he wants to buy the
username from whoever got facebook.com/jason.

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TrevorJ
Thank you, I now feel that I can spend my weekend outdoors instead of sitting
at home watching all this unfold. Other than a few minutes around 12:01, that
is ;)

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calvin
If by "a few minutes" you mean 35, then sure. And I'll probably be doing the
same thing

I don't want it for the SEO, but if nothing else having the name is convenient
for telling new "friends" how to find me on the most ubiquitous social network
without having to email them a long profile URL.

~~~
TrevorJ
I don't directly care about the SEO, but I'd rather not have some random guy
with a beer belly and pictures of his last wild party to come up when people
search for me. If I don't grab the name, somebody will.

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req2
As soon as I get a friendly Facebook URL for my blog I'm going to paste such a
scathing response...

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markm
What about the first post for someone selling their username on eBay?

~~~
calvin
From Facebook TOS Section 4.7 (5/1/2009)

    
    
      You will not transfer your account to anyone without first getting our written permission.
    

<http://www.facebook.com/terms.php>

Good luck with that.

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albemuth
Yeah, because ebay checks that.

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bodhi
Amusing and quite well done, I thought. He did a good job capturing several
internet memes. But the part that made me laugh the most was the throwaway
line:

 _and everyone else considers reading the short bit.ly URL to be equivalent to
reading the post._

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zavulon
I wonder if I'll be able to go on that update site and do it from my iPhone?
Around that time, I will be at a bar, either celebrating my team winning
Stanley Cup or drinking away my sorrows.. so no way to get to the actual
computer.

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dc2k08
Brilliant, I feel that HN will now disregard each of the various blog posts
that will discuss these issues at length as they occur.

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s3graham
<http://post.thing.net/node/2733>

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johnnybgoode
Funny and true. Going through the motions in the boring world of Web 2.0.

