I know there are already too much buzzing on the Google+ name and profiles topics, to my surprise, people are that serious in the discussion, kind of austere. Isn’t it a simple 1+1=2 problem?
OK, here are my 2 cents, just for fun, or to be more serious :D
Verify your name against the LAW or against YOU ?
This is the key point. Why does Google+ want to verify your name? Google acts like it wants to obey the law, and wants its users to obey the law too.
Look at Google Community Standards the listing items: Nudity and sexually explicit material, Hate Speech... etc. All of standards are just there to ensure the users obeying the community rule or the US law.
Gundotra also explained to Scoble, "it is about having common names and removing people who spell their names in weird ways, like using upside-down characters, or who are using obviously fake names, like 'god' or worse."'
That’s fine, if the purpose of verifying the user’s name is to obey the law, Google have my 100% support, and I really like an online community in good order.
However, just listen to all those noise from Google+ killing user’s account：
Google Plus Bans Creator of Firefox, For Using His Real Name
Google Bans Facebook Product Director Blake Ross From Google+
Obviously Google wants to do more than obeying the law, Google wants to verify your name against YOU--who are you? (OK Google, no bothering, even I myself don’t know who I am, that’s a sophistical philosophical question. )
That’s the reason why you see so many mis-killings here. For an online Service, it’s a mission impossible to verify all the user names against the users, that’s the job of the Global Government, which hasn’t born yet.
Not to mention the case that Google could even mis-kill the account names in English(how? you said you understand English the best!), if the account names are in languages other than English, there is no way for Google to fully verify the user name against the user. The name is more than the words, it’s culture, fame, trust, virtue...
I was thinking Google’s purpose of verifying the user’s name is to obey the law, which is the right and exact job an online service provider needs to do, but Google just did it in a wrong way. However, if Google insists on verifying the user name against the user, here is my suggestion: outsource the effort to the Google+ users.
More important than real name, real relationship, real interaction and real engagement are the keys to define who you are. If It’s impossible for Google to verify the user, the connections to that user can verify it. By its words, posting or interaction, other users can easily make judgement whether the account is fake or not. This method applies to both normal users or celebrities. The only risk is it takes some time. Here Google needs to exert its effort: provide verification mechanism to celebrities, to minimize the chaos a fake celebrity might bring in. For all the other verification effort, just leave it to the Google+ community.
Google+ is a great social site, it should accommodate all the diversities as in the real social world: pseudo name, real name, different cultures, and provide a good mechanism for people to join in and enjoy.
