Facebook Relents Will Allow Username Change

Last month, there was what was described as the equivalent of a username landrush. That was when Facebook rolled out a new program where its users could claim their name on the giant social networking platform. Given more than 175 million users, there was genuine concern, especially for those with common names to get in quick and grab the exact spelling of their name.

Now your Facebook address would look like this: www.facebook.com/barney.davey instead of ending with a non-memorable number/letter string. This is a great idea! The catch was this would be a one-time shot with the admonition to choose wisely as a redo was not going to be offered. Twitter had always been setup this way. You can find me on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/barneydavey.

When I went to claim my name, for reasons still unclear to me, I chose to use the "." between my first and last name. After the fact, I thought it was not a good idea and wished I had just run the two names together just as I have on Twitter. So, it was with great relief today when I read a PCWorld blog post: Facebook Now Allows One More User Name Change. It refers to another post from Read Write Web: Facebook Relents, Lets You Change Your Username.

If you want to jump in and make your change without plowing through the above posts, it is simple process. Login to your Facebook account, hover over Settings, choose Account Settings and give it a try. Good luck with it.

When I tried to change my name from barney.davey to barneydavey, I was disappointed to be told it wasn't available. Naturally, I went to see who had grabbed my name. I can't tell you the relief I felt when I saw that facebook.com/barneydavey resolved to my first choice. Apparently, the "." is not enough difference to warrant letting some other Barney Davey confuse my Facebook friends. If you need to change, or haven't yet claimed your name, I hope you get your first choice.