Google+ Introduce Alternative Names But How Many More Changes Can They Make?

The past few weeks have been strange for Google and their social media site. Google+ has been making so many changes in such short proximity of each other that it almost reeks of desperation, as if it’s trying to stay in the public consciousness by announcing more additions to be eventually picked up by tech sites and blogs (this one included).

Now Google’s VP for product Bradley Horowitz announced last night that Google+ will now allow users to add alternative names to their profile.

To an extent, this is a move that makes sense. Online users are more comfortable when they’re communicating through a profile that isn’t their real one. The personal restrictions that would come from using your real identity are gone, allowing the user to be more expressive in their opinion and thoughts.

The reason why trolls haven’t been mentioned yet is because Google+ still requires your real identity to work. The alternative identity is to accompany your real name (the example Horowitz gives is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). However if you have an pseudonym and you wish to use it on your profile, you must be able to prove it to Google either through references from offline in print media, news articles etc., or prove that you have such an identity with a meaningful following.

What Google defines as ‘meaningful’ isn’t entirely clear but it should stamp out any people who create an identity solely to troll, a bane for any site and users who end up arguing against them.

A Path Towards Pseudonyms

Recently Disqus found that over 60 per cent of users who comment use pseudonyms and been found to be more expressive in their opinions and thoughts while commenting. While Google+ aren’t exactly pandering towards that group, they are trying to bridge the gap between them and their own standards to increase the number of active uses, a detail that they twisted last week.

With so many new additions to the formula being introduced in such rapid succession, it’s virtually impossible to determine how many more changes Google+ will make to make the site a success. Changes like this may help then win new members in the short term, but as mentioned earlier, it comes across as somewhat desperate on their end. Considering Google+’s stance, it’s unlikely that this will lead to them introducing full blown pseudonyms in the future but with the way they’re progressing and their need to win users over, such a change may come sooner than we think.