Why typing @[4 :0] will get you “Mark Zuckerberg”? How do you do the same to get your name?

I have received comments about my blog post on @[4:0] = Mark Zuck. Sorry folks, I have not posted replies or explained about that.

Well. I managed to find out the reason, information and the history for it. :)

Why?

1.) Each of our FB account is tagged to a number. That’s the profile number. Note that not too long ago, FB allowed users to change their profile page (the page where visitors first view your information) to a ‘vanity’ name. That is- a customized name. For example, www.facebook.com/Zuck.

2.) With this changes, it does not mean that your profile number goes away. It is still there.

3.) So when we type @[4:0], we get Mark Zuckerberg. Why is that so? This is because Mark’s FB profile ID is 4.

Now you must be wondering why did the FB creator chose 4 instead of 1? Haha. This is because he used numbers 1-3 initially to test FB; and the profiles no longer existed.

Now we come to the question- can we type @[our profile number:0] to get our names? Yes, you can. But this begets the question- you have changed your profile page to a vanity name, how do you get the profile number?

Finding your FB profile number

There are 2 ways:

1.) https://graph.facebook.com/ method.

Go to https://graph.facebook.com/(type your FB vanity name in the “username” here, without the brackets). For example, https://graph.facebook.com/zuck is where “zuck” is the profile name for Mark Zuckerberg’s profile page http://www.facebook.com/zuck.

You should see something similar to the following:

{

   "id": "4",

   "name": "Mark Zuckerberg",

   "first_name": "Mark",

   "last_name": "Zuckerberg",

   "link": "http://www.facebook.com/zuck",

   "username": "zuck",

   "gender": "male",

   "locale": "en_US"

}

The "id": "4"- 4 is the ID number .

2.) FB Profile Method

Go to your profile page and move your mouse over your profile image. You should see a link url that comes out at the status bar of your browser.

For example: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.11111111111.11111.123456&type=1

The number behind the third dot is your profile ID. In this case, “123456” is the profile ID.

The @[your profile number: 0] “formula”

So if you type @[profile number: 0], you will get the person’s name. J

Reference Sources:

·         http://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=2229031

·         http://ubisoft.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14875/~/what-is-my-facebook-uid-and-how-do-i-find-it%3F

·         http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-06-01/tech/29973999_1_facebook-user-mark-zuckerberg-social-network

·         http://www.ehow.com/how_8337127_facebook-account-serial-number.html