14 DAY TRIAL // There is nothing a user hates more than long registration forms and complicated login systems. We sure are glad that Facebook relinquished both of them by taking another step towards a more user-friendly interface. From now on, Facebook users will be able to log in using just their username.
For those who do not have a Facebook username, you can get one here (Facebook account required, phone confirmation required). Email login will still be available for Facebook users.
“Beginning today, you also will be able to log in to your Facebook account with your username from any Web browser, mobile phone or Facebook Connect-enabled website,” said Bikash Agarwalla, Facebook engineer. “We just wanted to add a more convenient way to access your Facebook account. A username gives you an easy-to-remember web address for your Facebook profile so your friends can more easily find and connect with you.”
After introducing vanity URLs (powered by the usernames feature) earlier this May and a mega-facelift of their design, Facebook took another step into Twitterfying its interface. Slowly but surely a social war is about to begin. Until now we have seen periods of domination in time from one of the social networking sites but no battle for the first spot. Started with the likes of Classmates, SixDegrees and Epinions in the late 90s, social networking has slowly moved in the new century with sites like Friendster, Friends Reunited and MySpace.
None of these services has had to fight for its users that much. All of them seemed to go down because of spam problems, more than their services being inferior to another service. After surpassing MySpace (which everybody considers to be dead, so no competition there), Facebook prepares for a clash with Twitter for next year.
Facebook has recently announced surpassing the 300 million users mark, while Twitter's growth seems to be thrusting the company nearer and nearer to the leader of the pack: Facebook. As a customer I can only rejoice at the sight of the new features that are gonna be thrown at me for my attention.
