Millions of Users and Businesses Register Facebook Usernames in First 24 Hours of Landrush

June 13th, 2009

By Justin Smith

fblogosmall The Facebook username landrush appears to have gone off largely without a hitch. Over half a million usernames were registered in the first 15 minutes after the floodgates were opened, and several million usernames have been registered so far today (3 million as of 11am PT this morning). Few users reported having any technical issues with the site – congratulations to the team at Facebook on a very smooth launch!

We’ve seen some interesting cases of vanity URLs that have been registered so far:

Many users have been coming up with clever user names that look like they could be system files on Facebook, like Christine Shipley snagged facebook.com/default.aspx in the first few minutes, and Eric Luu followed suit with facebook.com/index. Facebook’s actual home page is located at facebook.com/home.php.
Others have found very good generic domain names for popular search terms. For example, Adriana Brown registered facebook.com/cheaphotels and Tom Fotheringham nabbed facebook.com/cheapcruises. Attorney Trey Branham chose facebook.com/mesothelioma, one of the highest priced PPC keywords on Google
Some users have been able to register offensive usernames as well.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook allows these names to live on – Facebook has built a team to make sure the vanity URLs that are registered are authentic. Some users have already reported having the usernames they registered being taken away. The next couple weeks are likely to be pretty messy as Facebook encounters gray area after gray area when it comes to username allocation. You can learn more about the rules Facebook has set up for vanity URLs for Pages specifically here.

Regardless, all those who’ve chosen new usernames will notice their profile page URL switch instantaneously. Expect to start seeing many more vanity URLs floating around in the coming weeks and months.

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11 Responses to “Millions of Users and Businesses Register Facebook Usernames in First 24 Hours of Landrush”

Tony Myles Says:
June 13th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I registered my name and accidentally included a dot in it (because it was suggested that way – in all the energy of the moment I didn’t notice you could create something not suggested).

Anyway – my domain is “http://www.facebook.com/tony.myles”

Only I noticed today that if I don’t include the dot (i.e. facebook.com/tonymyles) it still takes me to my page.

So I’m thankful for that courtesy.
rama Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Thanks for the latest news about facebook (especially about those usernames, they remind me, I have to get one for my facebook account =p). Can you post something about Zuckerberg’s TheFacebook infringement issue? Facebook fans (myself included) would definitely like to have the details about this mess regarding our favorite site…Please and thank you!=]
Facebook username for UniSA | Social media at UniSA Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
[...] On early Saturday afternoon (our time in South Australia) I got online and registered UniSA as a Facebook username. You may, or may not have, noticed that the Facebook URLs aren’t that friendly or easy to remember but Facebook changed that for pages/profiles over the weekend. Read more about it on Inside Facebook. [...]
Saqib Rizwan Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Good and informative article . I hope Facebook doing good in this way.
Vincenzo Piromalli Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 2:29 am
But you know that on Facebook username, user.name carry all the same profile?

http://facebookmania.net/en/2009/06/13/ma-lo-sapete-che-su-facebook-nomeutente-nome-utente-portano-tutti-allo-stesso-profilo/
Business News » Blog Archive » Millions of Users and Businesses Register Facebook Usernames in … Says:
June 16th, 2009 at 7:02 am
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
M4h3sA Says:
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:28 am
login
herlina ruth simbolon Says:
September 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am
The Fastest Way Create and Host Facebook Apps
SHANUMATHI Says:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
HOW R U.I DONT HAVE ANY COMENTS BECAUSE I LOVE FACEBOOK VERY VERY MUCH BECAUSE I LIKE TO CHAT WITH MY FREN’Z
SHANUMATHI Says:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
GOOD AND INFORMATIVE ARTICLES AND ALSO I HOPE FACEBOOK WILL CONTINUESLY DO THIS JOB AS WELL AS IT CAN. [;;]….??????????????….[;;]
winda oriza mutia _cUtE Says:
December 17th, 2009 at 12:55 am
aku masih menyimpan harapan pada mu….