Google Plus Users Getting the Hammer For Using Pseudonyms
To use Google+ you must have public profile tied to your real name. Google Plus claimed to support three type of account uses: unidentified, pseudonymous and identified. Many accounts are getting banned and some are even getting locked out of all Google services (Source: http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/wham-bam-google-ban-no-pseudonyms-google-plus).
Google Spokesperson Katie Watson responded, “Our policy requires you to use the name that you commonly go by in daily life on your Google profile. We do have a field for nicknames or other names you might be known by. Google Profiles are designed to be public pages on the web, which are used to help connect and find real people in the real world. By providing your common name, you will be assisting all people you know – friends, family members, classmates, co-workers, and other acquaintances – in finding and creating a connection with the right person online.”
In addition to Google+ accounts getting banned for the use of Pseudonyms corporate users have also been getting banned for creating Google Plus accounts. It’s interesting to me that Google+ is so eager to ban users instead of getting them to change there profile name and conform to company policy. I don’t understand why Google frequently throws down the hammer where instead there is a clear alternate opportunity of working with their users. Providing a good user experience includes USERS using pseudonyms.
Facebook currently holds the title of “undisputed champion of social networking”, but Google is poised to give them some serious competition in the near future. Rumors began to circulate this weekend that Google would be launching a new social network called Circles in the near future.
Google seems to struggle when it comes to social networking. Google Buzz received a lot of criticism over privacy concerns, and Google Wave was just too complex to appeal to a broad audience. If the rumors are true, Circles will solve both of these problems. Circles is rumored to include a strong focus on “inner circles” meaning users will have to directly approve which friends can see and share their updates. Additionally, the service is rumored to have a friendly simple method for sharing updates and information with your inner circle.
Facebook currently dominates other social networking sites, but they still take a great deal of criticism over issues like privacy. Facebook spam is fairly common, and adjusting your privacy settings can be a daunting process. If Google launches a competing service that doesn’t suffer the same issues, there’s a good chance they could compete with Facebook for social network dominance.
Google hasn’t seen success in social networking yet, but that doesn’t mean things will go poorly for Circles. Google offers a wide variety of services used by millions of people. In fact, the Android OS is now the most common smartphone OS in the US. Integrating their new social network with their popular mobile OS could help Google to bring Circles to a wide audience on day one. All of this remains rumor and speculation at this point, but if anyone could run Circles around Facebook, it would be Google. We’ll be sure to bring you more information on Circles as it becomes available.
The Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebooks are shipping today for the pilot test program. We are getting our first look at the Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebook. With Chrome OS the operating system is essentially a browser. You live in the browser 80-90 percent of the time.
Some great hands on reviews I’ve found include:
My Google Chromebook has arrived: First impressions after an hour READ HERE
Google is developing a self-driving car and it works! Google engineers have been driving a fleet of them around the San Francisco Bay Area according to the PCMag.com article. Read more about the Google car here http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370518,00.asp. If there is a Google engineer that can solve a problem it seems there is no direction Google won’t go. I think most people are like this and may be it’s no different for some companies, but everyone wants to be something they’re not. For example the graphic designer wants to be a programmer, the engineer wants to be a scientist, the movie actor wants to a rock star. I think Google has an inferiority complex. It’s not enough to have the monopoly on the world’s search market the engineers at Google want to be inventors, may be even scientists. Projects are great, but if a crisis were to hit Google would projects such as a self driving car start to look foolish to stock holders? Can’t say a self driving car is not awesome though!
