Facebook rolls out FB email, username continuity

One-upping Google+'s numerical URL IDs, FB simplifies the username experience with personal emails

Facebook want more and cleaner consistency on its website and today announced a change that could get more people to use more email within Facebook. Facebook is now starting a service where the name you use in your Facebook Timeline will be the same as the name on a Facebook email account.

This continuity announcement, Facebook explained, will take several weeks to reach the entire user base but some may already see that it has taken effect on their account if they check the link at the bottom of this Facebook message -- and those of you that are thorough and already listed an email address on your page will not be affected.

It’s hard to determine how many people on Facebook have already linked up a Facebook email address to their Timeline page — but it does allow for easier private communication and easier an easier method of finding people since the username will be very closely related to their display name.

This is a much more intuitive labeling and categorizing system than Google+ has with its profile ID number that is made up of a string of digits that no one would ever remember or even bother to write down.

As Facebook has tried to keep user profiles URLs as intuitive as they can with close relationship to the person's name, Google+ took a different road by distributing the long ID numbers which might have made sense for trial versions and some privacy, but now people are clamoring for continuity and ease -- I mean most people don't look for privacy and anonymity on a social network.

While there are ways to shorten and create vanity URLs with Google+, it is by no means something the causal user would know how to do.

If you are looking to extends continuity to your Google+ page you might want to follow this 5 step process, but I have seen inconsistant results so it is no guarentee:

1) Go to your Google+ profile (Open Google+ then click on your name)

2) In the URL at the top of the page, find the string of numbers that come directly after 'plus.google.com/' 

3) Copy those numbers to input on another site

4) Now, visit Gplus.to and paste the string of numbers into the appropriate field.

5) Where indicated, type in a nickname or shortener you want to replace the string of numbers with, and click 'Add'.