It's So Great Google+ Finally Dropped Its Real Name Policy, Said No Pseudonymous Internet User Ever

After years of contention and careful exceptions, Google finally dropped its "real names only" policy for its Google+ social network:

 

It's possible that this move will make Google+ appealing to people who want to disguise their real life identity online. But highly doubtful. Google+ has long ago been remanded to a ghost town, engagement-wise, and despite (fairly paranoid) concerns over Facebook, lots of pseudonymous Internet users have signed on with Team Zuckerberg. The official Second Life page on Facebook, for instance, keeps growing, and at its current rate, will in a year or two have about as many members as Second Life the 3D world has actual users.

Comments

[Shockwave yareach]

It will never reach 100%. I will never tie my FB to SL. I will never tie my G+ to SL. sL is my recreation and down time. It is no ones business who I am and what I do for a living in RL just because I use $program. If you are a close enough friend in either sl or RL, you get to know more about me. But no, you don't get to know everything about me just because you saw me in a SL dance and decided to go digging.

[TribeGadgets]

Its so rare that I had any use for either its easier to just make up another accnt for the duration as it were. Cannae see that changing much.

[Pussycat Catnap]

A LOT of people use G+.

I guess Hamlet is not one of them.

And Facespam just kicked off a new round of spanking the Marilyn Monroes of the world:
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Facebook-Targets-SecondLife-Avatar-Accounts-Again/td-p/2777712

So even more reason to go over to G+

If you use youtube, you're already using G+. If you ever comment on a youtube video, you just posted to your G+ feed.

Its also got a free unlimited gallery to save your lolcats and pron to...

(and lolcat pron I suppose if that's your thing.)

G+ has actually been quietly growing over time... It just doesn't have stupid running it so nobody notices. I'm NOT a fan of Google's arrogance (the whole barge thing for example)... but they have a better product than Facespam.

[Han Held]

If you say so, Hamlet...*shrugs*

[Kitty Revolver]

Hmm... I try to separate SL from my RL on fb, largely because they don't understand why I am a woman and spend tons of money on SL. I don't "like" any SL brands or events, although the official SL page is on my fb.

Having a G+ page for Kitty could be interesting as I like connecting with large amounts of SL people outside of my own group of friends and I hate Plurk. However, with my first life G+ account I really couldn't get into it. Maybe I will hook up Kitty's gmail account. *shrug*

[Pussycat Catnap]

SL Users would probably still get more use out of flickr, especially now that its integrated into the Viewer.

[Hamlet Au]

"G+ has actually been quietly growing over time..."

"Quiet" being the operative word, because a G+ account is automatically created for a lot of Google services whether a user wants one or not, or even quite knows it exists. Engagement of unique users-wise, there's very little evidence it has anything comparable to Facebook or Twitter. (I tweaked the text a bit above to clarify that.)

[Pussycat Catnap]

In that way its also less intrusive and yet more social.

Consider comments on many websites - not limited to youtube - are actually hooked into Google+ which acts as a middle / glue between them - without putting the user into some 'portal like' website.

Facespam does this too - but is more invasive about it and about requiring connections back to you. Google mines the overall dataflow and doesn't need to 'get up in your business' about it.

You can hold more meaningful conversations on G+'s assorted branches.

Facebook tries to convince advertisers that they need to know all about 'Pussycat Catnap'. So they get all in my business - and what they hand the advertisers is useless for figuring out how to communicate brands, even as it tells them the details of my intimate life.

G+ shows advertisers that 'Nekos will do this and rastas will do that' - which is gold for brands, but no one even needs to know that it applies to me. You can make solid big data predictions with Google's info, and never know who anybody is - which actually gets in the way because once you do know, your own filters cloud judgement.

Google+ going full on acceptance of Pseudonyms will actually help them get better data, by ensuring people are more free with what they say, and ensuring analysis isn't muddled by bias.

But...

Eventually we'll all wake up and realize we've been on G+ for a long time, actively using it, and were both none the wiser yet also never felt intruded upon.

[Talla Adam]

I have been running a G+ community, Opensim Virtual @ https://plus.google.com/communities/116284417302234467612 since the very start of the service over a year ago and it has grown to be very popular amongst Opensim users as a place to promote a grid, offer help and showcase our work. G+ is more like a message board forum than Facebook and now with their acceptance of Pseudonyms for virtual world users it gives the social network a special advantage which will be welcomed by both SL and OS people. For Opensim there are now lots of G+ communities supporting individual grids while our own Opensim Virtual presents itself as a welcoming HUD for many grids bringing the whole community together. It is widely accepted that, together with greater stability of the OS platform and many new functions not found in SL like NPC's, variable sized regions and powerful OSSL functions, Google Plus has help increase the free Metaverse population considerably over the last two years.

[Adeon Writer]

I think it's too late. If they had an open policy from the start, things might be different, but from what I see most people have already made up their minds about G+.

So long as I can continue using it without ever providing information I do not want to provide, I don't see a problem with the service.

[Petr Vanbeeck]

Hamlet, I have great respect for you but on the notion that G+ is a ghosttown you are dead wrong.

With Team Zuckerberg actively going after "Fake" users there are lots of people abandoning it for G+. Even if you go through their hoops you can find yourself deleted.

Make an account, cross post to G+. You will see alot of people are there and would read this blog. I know ALOT of people who recently have had their accounts shut down on FB. And I know alot of people who have left voluntarily recently.

SL would be well served to embrace G+ as a platform that welcomes the SL customer. As opposed to FB that actively takes measures to weed us out.

Why SL would actively pursue a relationship with a platform that openly doesn't want or appreciate its membership I will never understand.

[Aliasi Stonebender]

I get a lot more *useful* information on G+. It's kind of like comparing, well, facebook to reddit.