Don't Be Evil | Silicon Shecky

Google Plus, the honeymoon is over. Is social Media any good when you have no one to talk to?

So there we go. Google is really bringing the hammer down on people who use Pseudonyms. Not only for Plus, but also for Buzz, and other Googley apps. What good is it though? People get pissed and leave those services. That means less ad money for Google. It gives people a bad taste in their mouth, so they stop purchasing things that Google supports. It can be a nightmare, especially in this day and age of Twitter and Facebook also.

A friend of mine who just left google plus wrote the following as their last post:

Dear +Bradley Horowitz

I really thought you guys had figured it out, but its pretty clear from the Google Name Policy that Google has once again failed at recognizing the basic tenant of social networking, namely that relationships made and maintained online are just as real as those made in real life if not more so because of the greater pool of finding like minded individuals. Clearly those at the top have never been part of a forum community, an MMO, or been to a spontaneous community event whether it be out in the desert at Burning Man, inside the track at the Indy 500, or just waiting in a line for a concert. Those who have understand that a chosen name is just as real as one printed, stamped and filed by someone’s parents.

Everyone else has already mentioned the safety and legal concerns of denying the protection of a pseudonym to a wide array of people who would be in significant danger should they use their legal names on a public, datamining, service, so I won’t belabor the point.

For Google, I only ask you to watch the numbers as people begin to walk away and try to understand the significance of having a network where no one is, because none of their friends can participate safely.

For everyone else, please repost on your own accounts, you can give me a mention, if you like, but don’t just share it, you never know when I won’t be considered ‘real’ enough for Google.

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They are right. We are living in a world where people are becoming known more for their pseudonyms than their real names. A world where privacy means something.

Google overall has been deviating and basically given up on not being Evil. Android was originally marketed as open source, but now is only semi-open. Chrome browser is out there, but more heavily controlled now. Web apps, have become more and more secretive.

Page and Brin are what they are. Paranoid, secretive, wanting in the end to do good, but now are doing more bad than good. 2 brilliant minds who really don’t understand the real world, nor care about our concerns. Just like their mentor, and now enemy, Steve Jobs, they want to force things down our throats. the want to get all the information they can from everyone, and use that information to force us to the cloud for everything. They shouldn’t have to force us. they should do what they started doing, which was give us the tools we need to make the leap, and open them up so we have reason to. Maybe, someday they will get back to their original vision. I don’t count on it though.

Meanwhile, Google Plus is becoming a ghost town for me. A good number of my friends left due to the naming policy. Even people like Will Wheaton and Felica Day don’t seem to be posting as much. I’ll stick around there until they kick me out for using a nick name most people know me by. It really is a shame, because without the name policy, Google Plus could have laid the smack down on Facebook. People liked the setup, the circles, the security on it. Its too bad that Google doesn’t listen to us about names.