Over the past few days, Google have been removing accounts G+ that don't use real names, or "pseudonyms". Now, I myself use a pseudonym name, for I am Belahzur and my G+ name is set to that as well just because I'd rather use that than my real name online.
Google said they wanted Google+ to kill Facebook? that wont happen if they force people to use their real identity. Yes it's a "social network" but that doesn't mean Google should be allowed to force users to either use their real names or be locked out of G+, I know plenty of friends and family on my Facebook that don't use real names and I think that's part of Facebooks success.
Something I saw from an article on a scripting.com article about G+:
There's a very simple business reason why Google cares if they have your real name. It means it's possible to cross-relate your account with your buying behavior with their partners, who might be banks, retailers, supermarkets, hospitals, airlines. To connect with your use of cell phones that might be running their mobile operating system. To provide identity in a commerce-ready way. And to give them information about what you do on the Internet, without obfuscation of pseudonyms.
This made me think twice. Google use your data and pass it onto third parties? Yes this happens everyday without users even thinking about it and mostly it wont really effect us but when it comes to social networking, what users are interested in and what kind of topics are in their circles isn't to be shared with the world, data should be kept private.
Yes I realize G+ is still very young at only 4 weeks old but with over 10 million users already, Google needs to start thinking about what people want, not what they want.
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