• On TV.com: New TV sex symbol: Vintage black PORSCHE
September 23, 2008 4:06 PM PDT

Usernamecheck knows where your name is still available

by Rafe Needleman
  • Font size
  • Print
  • 9 comments

Sorry, John.

If you're one of those people who tries to grab his or her own preferred username on every new service that comes along, just in case the service becomes hot one day and you want to start using that cool ID, check out this new tool: Usernamecheck.

All it does is ask you for a user name, and then pings about 45 services so it can return to you "taken" or "available" for each one.

If a name is taken, it can't tell you if the owner of it is you or someone else (how would it know?), and there's as yet no way to add new sites for it to check--you have to wait for the developer to add them. Also, it's slow. And it doesn't appear to work on anything but Firefox.

But this is a useful tool for managing one's personal brand. And here's a tip for parents-to-be: Run your baby names through it, as well as through BustAName. Your kid might thank you.

Related: The looming crisis: Personal syndication overload.

Via Delicious.

Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
Add a Comment (Log in or register) (9 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
by peppahmink September 23, 2008 4:28 PM PDT
Works on Chrome, too.
Reply to this comment
by famous-seamus September 23, 2008 5:46 PM PDT
Great tool for finding out who can't spell Slartibartfast!
Reply to this comment
by jpsykes September 23, 2008 6:05 PM PDT
Hey Rafe, thanks for the mention. I started to email you back on your question of "will it scale", but figured a blog post would be easier....

http://jon.sykes.me/234/will-it-scale

I totally agree with your linked article http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10046826-2.html the volume of sites that come out every day that require a user account to be setup is amazing and although their have been attempts by the likes of Google and Facebook to remove this need by allowing people to use their systems I still think there is a huge hole in the market for that one account to rule them all.
Reply to this comment
by john5540 September 23, 2008 9:29 PM PDT
wow, this is way cool.
Reply to this comment
by Riquez-001 September 23, 2008 10:02 PM PDT
Also works in Safari, Opera, Netscape & Mozilla.
Reply to this comment
by jpsykes September 26, 2008 1:41 PM PDT
Just a quick update, the last 24 hours was pretty shocking. I totally trashed my shared hosting server. Lunch time today I switched to Mosso, which has meant I've had to add google ads to offset the cost (which is substantial for a pet project). But going forward the site should be rock solid stable. Sorry to anyone who visited and it was down or acting buggy.
Reply to this comment
by aaasolanki September 27, 2008 12:56 PM PDT
Checked the website and its still acting weird...entered a username I liked to check, hit enter, nothing happened.
Then clicked the "?" button next to the username field, still nothing happened.
Frustrating when something like this happens. Its difficult enough to get people to use your service, but its even more difficult to get back the people who didn't have a good experience the first time they tried your service...
Reply to this comment
by massgripnosis March 4, 2009 12:04 PM PST
Sadly, usernamecheck closed last week. I created a usernamecheck clone called http://myuserna.me in order to keep the dream alive. Stop by and give me some feedback. Thanks, greg
Reply to this comment
by itcndev March 12, 2009 4:56 AM PDT
That site is gone, but a new site which checks usernames across over 100+ different social media websites is now available at <a href="http://checkusernames.com">http://checkusernames.com</a>
Reply to this comment
(9 Comments)
  • prev
  • 1
  • next
advertisement

About Webware

Say No to boxed software! The future of applications is online delivery and access. Software is passé. Webware is the new way to get things done.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Webware topics

A CNET Conversation with Eric Schmidt

CNET's Tom Krazit and Molly Wood sit down with Google CEO Eric Schmidt to discuss the future of Android, the Chrome OS, the problem of real-time search indexing, and more.

Verizon tests sending RIAA copyright notices

The No. 2 phone company, known for its reluctance to intervene in antipiracy cases, strikes an agreement to forward copyright notices on behalf of the music industry.

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right