FB Verified Accounts to aid celebs, deter touts

BANGALORE, INDIA: Marshall Bruce Mathers III has to use from now Facebook's new feature — Verified Accounts — to confirm his real identity, if at all he likes to garner more subscribers to his profile.

Conversely, if Mathers is bent on sticking with his stage name, Eminem — which could be displayed on searches — he would run the risk of losing millions of additional followers. For, Facebook is going make its 'People To Subscribe To' suggestions, said a famous tech portal, largely based on the Verified Accounts feature.

It is also to help common users avoid following fake profiles masquerading that of a real celebrity and for FB to deter spammers and impostors. When users are redirected to the profile pages of famous celebrities, they can get to know the latter's real names, the veracity of which would be cross-checked by the social network through the personalities' government-issued photo identity proof.

Anyhow, it gives an option to popular personalities — to be ascertained by FB based on the size of their existing subscriber base — to display their stage name/nickname/pen name in searches. Ultimately, their birth names would appear on their profile, presuming they opted for Verified Accounts.

Also, there will be an option to have their alternative names, i.e. preferred ones, appear alongside in parentheses or to display their birth names only in the About page of their profile.

It has hitherto been a touch tedious for users to display their nickname, as an afterthought, since they had to change their official name.

It is surmised that the new feature might reward Facebook in consolidating its user base, against the background of its ongoing rivalry with Twitter.

As it's an option extended only to people with a large number of subscribers already, you, your neighbour and our aunts can't make use of the feature. Unless, of course, FB declares us 'The Ones'.