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Google+ finally abandons display name restrictions, lets users choose whichever name they like

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In yet another development in Google’s still budding social network since the departure of Google+ lead Vic Gundotra, G+ is making a shocking change to their terms of service they’ve long held onto. Starting today, Google+ users can finally change their display name to whatever they like. We know, groundbreaking. Here’s what Google+ had to say via, where else, but their Google+ profile:

“We know you’ve been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today’s change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be. Thank you for expressing your opinions so passionately, and thanks for continuing to make Google+ the thoughtful community that it is.”

I guess the next question is whether or not this will help bring new users into the fold. We’re not entirely sure why you wanted to use a different name than the one on your birth certificate, but have at it.

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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26 Comments

  1. This would have worked for me two years ago. Now I just can’t work up the care to go back. They strangled it in the crib.

    1. I’m enjoying it thoroughly. It’s still very much alive.

    2. It’s excellent for talking to like minded people.

    3. Yeah, I feel like the damage was done. You never get a 2nd chance at a first impression.

      1. Disagree. Agree.

    4. G+ is going strong, I love it and ditched Twitter and FB long ago. It only gets better, I just hope the fake name policy doesn’t turn it into garbage.

  2. Only thing Vic had to do with this was approve it. Yonatan Zunger confirmed it in the announcement post. He helped work on it.

    – Nope. Vic was 100% involved in the process and approved the whole thing months ago. :)

    I’d check out the post to see what else he has to say

    1. Can you provide a link please?

  3. Now if Disqus would stop with the automatic signature lines that specify the size of my unit…

    3.72″

  4. I left Google+ for the whole circles part. I received my Google+ invite a week after it went invite-only, since then I have accumulated over 300 followers, many from countries whose names I cannot pronounce.. Just spent about 45 minutes deleting all of them..now down to ≈20 followers..

    my new addiction: Google+ Communities!!!

    So yeah..G+ is far from dead to me..LOLz

    1. I’ve loved G+ for the communities.
      I’ve seen something along these lines mentioned on there many times.

      Facebook is for talking to people you know about things you don’t.
      G+ is for talking about things you know with people you don’t.

      1. Yes. I use my Google Plus kinda like a news blog. Sometimes I don’t want to see what my friends have to say, I wanna see what the pages have to say. I get to see all the Android news, PKMN News, Anime news etc. LoL!!

  5. There goes the neighborhood. It was nice having minimal trolls for the past 3 years.

    1. Neighbourhood? More like forced labour camp. G+ is the troll on our backs.

    2. Well racists remained on youtube with their hateful speech against blacks with out anyone flagging them. The real name crap didn’t work.

      1. I highly disagree.

  6. It would have been better to just not require Google+ for services.

  7. This isn’t simply about a social network. If you can’t see the need to be anonymous on the internet, then you have blinders on. Especially now a days, with so much oppression and socioeconomic flux throughout the world.

  8. Still can’t use just a basic screen name, have to have a last name.

  9. I just wish they would open it up for company names as well.

    1. why not just create a G+ Page for the business?

      1. Because they currently do not offer G+ pages for business.

  10. Not a fan, I have already been seen more and more low quality content on G+ and I don’t think this will help. They had a good thing going especially with improving YouTube comments with G+ comment integration.

    I feel like this is a big step backwards. Time will tell.

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