Completed Another Social Networking Tool: CheckUserNames.com

February 27, 2009 | Barry Wise | News, Press Releases
27 Comments

This one is (a little) more useful than TweetWasters. My new site, CheckUserNames.com, allows you to check the availability of your potential new username across dozens of popular social networking sites (MySpace, Delicious, LinkedIn, etc.). Due to the increasing demand for staking your claim on your brand name across the interwebz, this little tool should come in handy for some of you.

The site is based on the original concept by the creator of usernamecheck.com, Jon Skypes. Unfortunately, Jon had to take his site down due to the massive amount of incoming traffic. Soon after he did, Michael Gray and Mike Streko brought it to my attention. Seeing the need left by the loss of his site, yesterday afternoon I got to work coding a replacement.

Jon was nice enough to post some of his PHP curl code and I used that as a basis to create an all new Ajax object to go out and grab the result screens from all these social networking and social bookmarking websites. By last night I already had 25 or so sites done. This morning Jon emailed his old database to me which has proven very helpful in adding more sites to the list. As of this writing we’re up to 54 and have plenty more left to add.

The concept behind the site is very simple; you enter a username, and one at a time the application goes out to each site on the list to find out if the username exists or not. It’s a little tedious to set up, since I do have to manually go to each site and look for the unique “User not found” message on each page. And of course I also have to design the little logo graphics that go along with each site. But it was such a simple and quick project to work on I couldn’t pass on it.

So if you still don’t have an account on obscure social sites like BallHype or Linkfilter yet, check their availability and go sign up!

Now go out and bombard the interweb with my self-whoring social links:

Tags: brand name, check usernames, social networking, user name tool, user names, usernamecheck

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Comments

27 Responses to “Completed Another Social Networking Tool: CheckUserNames.com”

goacom on February 28th, 2009 2:15 pm
A super list. Really nice to check all networks at one go and then take a call on the propective username.

Its surprising thought hat WordPress is not around despite the presence of blogger and typepad.

But a great resource and thanks for sharing this with the community
ITCN on March 2nd, 2009 4:16 pm
We’ve added WordPress, so we’re up to 80 sites now with plans for plenty more to be added.
Tnomeralc Web Design Toys on March 4th, 2009 10:57 am
Love this checkusernames! Im using a very concrete username but different passwords on my logins. This is indeed a handy tool. Thanks!
SEO Lebanon on March 4th, 2009 3:16 pm
its great tool!
Thank you for the explanation and your time

W.D.
CashMakers on March 6th, 2009 7:22 pm
Wow, what an awesome tool. I will definitely recommend it to my mates. Thanks!
Grand Rapids Web Design on March 7th, 2009 1:57 pm
Wow, I didn’t know you were behind this site. Great job!
Stan Stalnaker on March 8th, 2009 12:39 pm
Hi – can you please add HubCulture.com to your list of SNS for your new service? Hub is invite only and largely focused outside the USA.

thanks
stan
Manish Ahuja on March 10th, 2009 12:41 am
Hey,

Thanks for visiting Surreal Nirvana and informing readers about your website. I like the neat layout and wish you all the luck with all your endeavors. Hope to see you back on Surreal Nirvana soon.

Manish :)
Florida web design on March 11th, 2009 7:20 am
Yes , a good tool really effective for companies who want to make some branding online so that they can be recognised easily on any site
Web Design Adelaide on March 12th, 2009 6:52 pm
Great idea for branding. Bookmarked it and will use it when I have a little more time.
Well done
Maneet Puri on March 13th, 2009 4:11 am
Great list Barry.. More than it helped me to figure out available user names, I am glad to have a ready list of popular social networking websites and the likes :) Thanks!
Jeet on March 16th, 2009 12:57 pm
Barry: Indeed the tool was required and thanks for providing a replacement. You can probably get this new tool mentioned in feedmyapp, killerstartups and other web2.0 blogs so that more people can benefit from it.
People Wiki on March 17th, 2009 6:51 am
Makes my job easier but is there any means i can check my social networking accounts at one place or integrate them into one
Evan on March 17th, 2009 9:00 pm
This is an awesome idea, I am going to check it out right now!
ethical seo professionals on March 18th, 2009 12:11 am
nice, thanks for sharing. Actually you made my work more easily.
pro designer on March 23rd, 2009 12:17 pm
Thanks a lot, i love this and i m going to use it for checking of user names for my web development projects
Silverback Marketing on March 25th, 2009 10:59 am
This is a great tool! Awesome idea!
Brand Yourself on April 2nd, 2009 8:08 pm
Very cool, so it’s a bit like Onlywire, just working the other way?

Here is another cool idea for you to chew on Barry – how about a tool that allows you to simultaneously upload video to multiple accounts – YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion etc.

As far as I can tell, there isn’t anything around like that at the moment?
Online Shopping Centre on May 1st, 2009 2:48 am
Great list, and even greater work you’ve done there. Bravo!

I just hope the sites do not change, have you provided a reporting facility for any errors?
The Agra Indian on May 4th, 2009 3:45 pm
Thank for this wonderful initiative.

This will be a great help for social book marking to promote the web site as all SB sites need sign up before starting
Web templates on May 8th, 2009 7:55 am
Thanks, this is a good tool for effective branding online.
alison on June 3rd, 2009 7:20 am
Thanks for the tool which helped a lot in creating my usernames without any difficulty and for the list which saved a lot of time.
Professional MySpace Design on July 2nd, 2009 2:58 pm
Oh Man! I wish I would have stumbled on this sooner. I am definitely bookmarking your site and will put it to good use. Checking out the premium section now.
Eric Goldstein on December 28th, 2009 1:26 pm
Super great tool my friend!

Our name has become our brand
out on the net, so it’s important
to grab it on all the main properties.

Thanks again:)
Block Laurent on January 23rd, 2010 3:19 pm
Perfect! I’ve recently joined LinkedIn and I’m aiming at expanding on other networks, too.
Very helpful indeed – Thanks a lot :)

Kind regards,
Net Age | Internet Marketing on June 13th, 2010 1:27 pm
Excellent tool! I just came across this post during an online quest, searching for tools, specifically social networking tools. This one checks 160 social networks for you, and then offers a premium service that will register your chosen name on up to 300 popular social media sites.

From $249 to $599 there are packages where they will give you the full house treatment where you do not need to move a finger or spend any time creating your social media profiles and creating bios and handling emails.

It sounds like a winner to me, but the free tool alone is really worthwhile, and it makes good sense to go and run your names through there, whilst giving it a vote in your favourite social media sites.
Social Networking Web Design on August 18th, 2010 2:23 pm
What a fantastic little tool. This is going to be helpful for many people trying to get a handle on their social networking strategies.