Recently, NPR’s Andy Carvin at the Edinburgh International TV Festival had been able to quiz Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO with a question about Google+ real names policy. In justification Schmidt said said that if users of Google+ do not like the social networking site’s policy of using one’s real name, then Google+ is maybe not for those users. These comments were made by Schmidt during a Q&A session, which restricted Carvin from asking the follow-up questions to Schmidt in this context.
The question had an important point to note which was for the safety of the people who might be at risk on revealing their real names. Schmidt had stated that if one has concerns over their safety, Google+ can be optioned out. There is no force on one to use Google+. He continued saying, “It’s obvious for people at risk if they use their real names, they shouldn’t use G+.”
Carvin blogged in a Google+ blog post that Schmidt had even said that the primarily purpose of Google+, on which it has built on was as an identity service. It is therefore a decision that one has to make to build their future products, which would be leveraging their information.
Schmidt comments when paraphrased, noted the former Google exec saying that it would be better for a real person to be known as a real person only rather than a fake person or a dog. He even said that there are a few who use such fake names to act evil and this policy would be helpful in knowing them and they would be ranked downwards.
There were views which were contrasting from the Google exec. views. Fred Wilson, venture capitalist on Sunday added his own thoughts on the ‘identity service’ comments of Schmidt. Fred said that the search engine giant can use the real names of the users to build on its user information base. He blogged noting, “It begs the question of whom Google built this service for? You or them, And the answer to why you need to use your real name in the service is because they need you to.” Wilson even said that the reach for Google+ since its launch has been growing at a great pace and linking the +1 button sharing directly to Google+, Google+ adding friend annotations and Google+ posts appearing in Google search results, it can be noted that Google is targeting a broader user picture and is no more working for its products.
This could even extend Google’s reach for a personalized search and even in regards to the target advertising or can be an altogether a new ball game. Again, Google+ has so many features such as the newly added feature of games, along with photo albums and “friendships” (in the form of Circles), how can it be more of an ‘identity service’ and not a social network? Of course the primary motive can be bifurcated, but it cannot be completely differentiated from being a social network.
On the whole, even if Google+ tracks in for only the real people, it will have a tough time removing the fake accounts which would keep popping in every now and then. An instance to note is of fake Paul Krugman account, who had attracted great amount of attention. This would be a big responsibility on the newbie social networking site’s shoulders to keep up with every account’s validity.