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from the arrows-buy-ennui-utter-gnome-our-crust-as-wheat dept.
According to the Google+ Page, Google is finally giving up on forcing everyone to user their real names to join Google+.
When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.
Over the years, as Google+ grew and its community became established, we steadily opened up this policy, from allowing +Page owners to use any name of their choosing to letting YouTube users bring their usernames into Google+. Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use.
We know you've been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be. Thank you for expressing your opinions so passionately, and thanks for continuing to make Google+ the thoughtful community that it is.
I know many folks that refused to join Plus, just because of the restrictions and the fact that they *cough* suggest you to anyone in your contacts. They've given up on youtube comments, app store ratings, and a dozen other things that require Plus accounts.
Some might now join, though most probably won't simply because Google was so darn stubborn about this for so darn long.
What say the Soylentils?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cafebabe on Wednesday July 16 2014, @05:18PM
While some people change their name to be more unique, there is also a strong tide of people going the other way. For example, more than 300 people per year change their name to John Smith [bbc.co.uk].
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(Score: 1) by len_harms on Wednesday July 16 2014, @05:54PM
What if they are just hard core doctor who fans?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2014, @08:49PM
> While some people change their name to be more unique, there is also a strong tide of people going the other way.
I've been seriously considering it myself. I've taken to using a handful of pseudonyms picked from name-frequency tables for my geographic area. But there are a couple of times you have use a real name (like to get a driver's license) that also associate your name with an address and "john smith" + address is still almost completely unique.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cafebabe on Wednesday July 16 2014, @09:36PM
You've given me an idea:-
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