Usernamecheck is a free web service that checks the availability of your desired user name across more than 60+ sites (webmail services, social networking, video and music sharing, etc).
[Editor’s note: this review was written by reader Gaurav Paul with subsequent editing by the webmaster].
Although most of us have a username that we particularly like that ideally we would want to use across the board for all web services and websites that we use, we have all had the experience where our preferred name was already taken.
The Usernamecheck service can check your username across a great many sites at once so you can either take quick action to register your name or otherwise help you find that distinct username that still works on all the services that you are interested in.
How to use: enter your desired username and the site will check for availability in (currently) 68 different and popular sites, including Gmail, Twitter, WordPress, Ebay, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, Stumbleupon, Delicious and many others. It will show you the username status as “available or taken”. (Facebook is notably absent).
Note that Usernamecheck doesn’t actually register available names for you; for that you will need to go to each site separately.
The verdict: a brilliant concept and overall a very good, well-designed site.
Go to the Usernamecheck site.
