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Google+ Relies On Real Identities
- by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, August 29, 2011
For Google+ to achieve its ultimate, Google needs everyone to kindly use their real names and identities.
Why, exactly? Eric Schmidt said this weekend that Google+ was built primarily as an identity service, reports Andy Carvin, a social-media strategist at NPR. "So fundamentally, it depends on people using their real names if they're going to build future products that leverage that information," Schmidt explained, according to Carvin."This was incredibly exciting (and a little scary) for me to read," admits eWeek's Clint Boulton. "I'd argued in the past that one of the reasons Google wants people to use their real names is so that they can target them personally with advertising." Indeed, in the context of Google's controversial real-name policy, Schmidt revealed "a new perspective on Google+," writes Mashable.
Regarding Schmidt's comments, venture capitalist Fred Wilson posits: "It begs the question of whom Google built this service for? You or them. And the answer to why you need to use your real name in the service is because they need you to."
Under the seemingly damning headline, "Google+ is About Your Identity," WebProNews writes: "The focus on identity makes a great deal of sense, as social networks have essentially become who we are on the Web .. It makes even more sense when you consider Google's grand plans in payments with the inevitable integration of Google+ and Google Wallet."
"Google doesn't believe identity can exist without real names," Softpedia writes. "This, even as countless people have used pseudonyms and aliases for years, across services, Websites or games, and are known in real life by plenty of people after their pseudonyms rather than their actual names."
"How could Google leverage users' identity information for new products?" Mashable asks. "Perhaps through more targeted advertising or personalized search, or maybe something completely different."
Moving well into the realm of conspiracy, eWeek's Boulton adds: "Think of this as the prelude toward the Minority Report ads that targeted Tom Cruise's character when he walked through a mall. Though instead of a retinal scan, Google's algorithms pair users' interests with their Google+ Profiles."
Gavin O'Malley edits MediaPost's Mobile Marketing Daily and MoBlog column. Follow him: @mp_gavin. You can reach Gavin at gavin@mediapost.com.
The reasoning behind Google+ asking for real names seems suspect if only for the reason that it's coming from one of largest advertising platforms in the world (if not the largest).
I like the idea of using only real names in that I'm able to keep track of who is who. On Facebook, people change their names constantly to avoid employers, creepy dates, etc. So when someone on my peripheral changes their name I might not recognize them.
On the other side not being able to use a preferred nickname is bothersome and in a country built on Freedom, why can't you choose what you would like to be called?
Google's Eric Schmidt along with a Stanford Computer Science professor Sebastian Thrun had involved into crimes which had endangered human lives. Schmidt and Thrun's side had murdered Stanford student May Zhou and they had plotted a murder on me as well, during their fight with Stanford to threaten me and to terrorize Stanford people.
Here are the latest development about May Zhou's case[ http://bit.ly/mayzhoucase ]
Schmidt and Thrun had not paid for their crimes so far. But this case is regarding to people's lives, and when it
regards to people's lives, there should not be any compromise nor any dubious or obscure points left. more details [ http://tysurl.com/BsEnQ4 ]
Here is the latest discussion with Thrun's side about Eric Schmidt and Sebastian Thrun's roles in Stanford student May Zhou's case. [ http://tysurl.com/IsyVis ] in which one could clearly tell there are serious problems left in these crime cases. They need to pay for their crimes.
They want your personal information to sell you things. How much is your personal information worth? $100 per month ? $1,000,000 for life ? Time for those who value their personal information to contract it out all nice and legal - in case they go back on their word and sorry won't matter. Let's see... 500,000 individual small claims court cases for $1000 each and then.........
What arrogance. A Search engine is going to dictate what name you can/cannot use? Pleeease! Give them a wide berth. There a zillion other search engines and social sites.
Who do they think they are? We are their playthings? I do not think so. When a company gets as arrogant as this watch out for their decline. The world will go on just as dynamically without Google if they push this arrogant nonsense. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergey Brin put out their personal email address for the worl to contact them. I bet. Hypocrisy!!!!!!
This needs to be fought against. There's no problem with advertisers targeting a pseudonymic identity. It's very scary to enforce a real name policy because it does tend to force people to be politically correct and political correctness destroys civilizations.