Should my users' profile page URL be /user/bob or just /bob?

Currently, the URL to a user's page is this:

website.com/user/bob

But I'm considering changing this to be:

website.com/bob

Without the /user/ part. It comes across as much cleaner and easier to access, as user pages are one of the most frequently-visited pages on my site.

I have, however, a few questions:

1. Is this something I should do? Is it SEO friendly?
2. Would this be done within my code (my routes file) or would it be done through .htaccess or some other method?

Thanks.

via Chebli Mohamed