Google+ is currently everyone’s favorite social network and Facebook’s first real competition. They have announced a new rule: no using bogus names. Users will have to use their real names, or face getting deleted.
The rule was announced on a YouTube video and on G+ by Product Manager of the SNW Team, Saurabh Sharma. The video said that if a person is not using his or her real name, the profile will be removed, after giving four days to rectify the name. Google’s logic is that it is part of its effort to make connecting people on the Web more like connecting with people in the real world. Hence the non tolerance of pseudo names or nicknames as your name on Google+.
Deletion of account consists of your account being closed, but you can still download your personal data off Google’s servers using Google+’s Takeout service. This is commendable, as many other companies don’t allow users to easily shift their personal data off of their servers.
Google seems to have realized the mistakes that occurred on Orkut and are determined not to let it repeat itself. However, it does make the use of Google+ limited, as brands and companies cannot use it.
There is, however, a workaround. Users can avail of a service call MyPlus. Using that, you can have a personal URL leading to your G+ page. It is similar to Facebook’s Vanity URL.
