

Where is your user name registered? - maxwell
http://www.usernamecheck.com/

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randomwalker
There's this idea I've had for a while, but never got around to implementing:
every namespace is a market. So there should be a place where you can trade
ownership of tokens in different namespaces. There already exists a healthy
market for domain names, although it is heavily fragmented, but usernames on
websites are becoming valuable enough that it makes sense to trade usernames
as well. Once such an infrastructure exists, you can imagine auctioning a
variety of things this way -- phone numbers, license plates..

I've fleshed out the idea in my head in some detail, but that's the gist of
it.

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mindaugas
Maybe it should do everything in parallel?

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Hexstream
And cache results or at least prevent you from checking the same name twice
(or infinite times) in a row.

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RossM
As far as I know it does do some caching (or at least I've heard
@usernamecheck (<http://www.twitter.com/usernamecheck>) tweet something to do
with caching).

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ryanspahn
Does it let me claim my name and auto register said name to each site?

A new form of Open ID! Visual and lazy!

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jasonkester
A natural feature for this would be to wait until the user leaves your site,
then register accounts at all those sites using the supplied username. Then
squat on those new accounts and offer to sell them back to people.

Collecting emails would help!

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thwarted
The utility of a consistent username across sites that have them visible
(usernames are obviously more useful at flickr than at your bank, outside of
ease of remembering) is mitigated by content aggregation sites like
friendfeed. Once I've added a service to my "Me" listing at friendfeed, it
becomes authenticated to my identity, no matter what the exact username is.

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alecco
Didn't have time to analyze his code, but from the privacy statement he does
server side stuff. No-go for me. This could be done client side only.

Edit: yep he does call /check/<site>/<username>.

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mitchellh
A privacy statement for a usually public username anyways? I don't think this
kind of stuff needs to be done client-side only. If passwords were being sent
along too that would be something different but usernames are meant to be
shared and usually somewhat public information.

Unless you're worried about the maker of the site "stealing" your identity on
some site... although thats a pretty weak argument. If there is a "mitchellh"
on some site I just make a "mitchellh3" or something of the like... no big
deal.

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alecco
This site could match usernames with OS/browser fingerprint and IP address
(location.)

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petercooper
Very clever little tool. I can't see myself using it too often, but it's shown
me lots of semi-popular sites where I can still pick up my username.. so I
might just have to do that next!

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HeyLaughingBoy
Am I the only one who still reads /. ?

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indiejade
What, no Slashdot? ;)

