Thinking twice about Facebook URL vanity
In less than a day, Facebook (FB) will allow its users to choose a username for their profile. There has been quite a bit of fuss about this development, even though it might not seem significant to the average joe. To use a cliche’, what’s in a (user)name, right?
Well in this case, the username FB users choose will help simplify the URL that points to their FB profile. To take my profile as an example, my current URL is http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Jeffrey-Romano/563707463, quite a handful for my liking. Using the new username system the whole thing would look much simpler. To give an example, this is the profile page URL of the White House (they get a username before us normal people) www.facebook.com/whitehouse.
This change in profile URLs is pretty significant because it means that when somebody types in your name in Google, Yahoo, Bing or wherever, there is a better chance of your FB coming up. This can be a good thing, especially for businesses.
However, if in your profile you have loads of fun pictures and videos you posted when you were at one of those end of exam bashes last year, then I’d suggest thinking twice about making your FB profile more visible. Considering that the people who normally look up other people in search engines are future employers, prospective clients, etc., then it is hard to justify why you’d want to show them how much fun you can be after you downed an x number of beers.
In all honesty though, regardless of your name, you can pinpoint a lot of people on FB if you know their name and where they live. If you do not want your private information to be visible, then go through your privacy settings and set everything so that only your friends can see your details. After this, I would still be careful about what I post on FB. Mainly because you and not Facebook are responsable to what happens to the content you post, and yes this includes deleted information. Check this for more info.
Does this change my attitude towards Facebook?
Well in a way, this move has made me more aware that FB wants to make it easier for people to get to specific profiles more directly. I’m not totally for this because I prefer it when people access my profile through the news feed or something. It somehow feels less like someone is stalking me. After all, why should someone want to know my profile URL? If the answer is ‘no reason’, then there is exactly ‘no reason’ why I would want my profile URL to be easy to remember. If the answer is ‘to know more about me’, then people can visit my LinkedIn profile.
When I started using Facebook, it was never my intention to share information with people unknown to me. I encourage people who see FB like me to think twice about Facebook URL vanity.
My advice, unless you want to be found, don’t make it easy for other people to find you. According to FB, using your nickname as your username is completely legit (hint hint).
Great blog Jeffrey!
Best, JOhn