ARE YOU EVERYWHERE YOU WANT TO BE?

There are a lot of online places to visit these days and yet we seem to get caught up in some kind of virtual rut. I'm not talking about the casual surfing we all do when we go online. There's always a link to click on, a video to watch and something tempting to buy. Random surfing is part of what keeps the whole Internet experience an interesting one. Still there are certain online places we go to on a more regular basis. And of those, I want to focus on the ones that require you to set up an account name and password. For example, we may head on over to a social site like Facebook to see what our friends are up to today. We may check out YouTube to catch the latest video rave, glance at our web-based email and get our local news.
Websites like these require a name and password to keep your information secure or at the very least personalize them so that you can maintain information that's relevant to your participation there such as remembering what you did the last time you visited.

As time passes and your online awareness grows, you will discover new websites that offer features and services you may not want right now but you may want later on. But there's a small problem associated to all of this and that's your username. Chances are your username is something that relates to your actual name. Traditionally it's the first letter of the first name tacked onto the last name. Many of the places I go to have my same username. It just makes things a lot easier to remember. Of course all of my passwords are all different. But unfortunately and too often, when I go to sign up to a new service with my username, it's already taken!
I hate when that happens because I then have to come up with some other username that I have to remember. And unless your username is something really unique in all the world, I'm willing to bet it's happened to you too.
You go to some new website to register only to be informed that your username has already been assigned. Recently I have discovered a website that helps me to not only discover new websites, it also checks each one to see if my username is still available. And if it is, you can rush on over to get it registered so no one else can grab it.

Evidently the creator of the UserNameCheck.com website was plagued by the same annoying scenario. In fact, according to the author, he lay awake nights wondering if there was some really great website out there just waiting to be discovered and he was about to have his username usurped from him once again when he went there to register. The burning question was whether or not he had his username registered across every important website? His other concern is also one shared by myself. Too often I will get an email or a phone call from someone thinking that the username they see on some website is in fact mine. So they write something to me and of course it's someone else with my username. If I'm lucky that person will say that they are not me or worse, they will just ignore them and the person trying to contact me will wonder why I don't respond or that I'm just being rude and ignoring them. I hate when that happens.

When you go to UserNameCheck.com, you will see a listing of all the websites that the author deems to be important. That list is constantly being maintained and growing so it's a good idea to come back and visit every so often. You just type in your username and UserNameCheck.com goes to each and every one of the websites on the list to see if your username is still available or taken. You see that status right next to each listed website.
From there you can elect to click on any or all of the ones that are still available and go register your username.

So now I'm using UserNameCheck.com to see where my username is still available and I'm registering my username wherever I can. I may not ever need to be there and I may not ever need the service. But if it's free, you can bet I'm going to make sure I register my username there so someone else can't grab it. You should too.

www.UserNameCheck.com

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