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

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.