supermouse

There's been a debate about what Google+ has as a naming policy. I've kept my head down on that one, since my name on Google+, as it is everywhere else (including most of my offline life) is Supermouse The Rodent. Since I've now been picked up by Google+ as having an 'inappropriate username', I feel free to talk without attracting people reporting me out of spite.

Their stated policy is that any name you're generally known by is good. However, they will challenge a large number of names (in fact, of all the names people in the world have, Google+ will challenge the vast majority.) At that point, they ask for your ID or for Facebook or LinkedIn account profiles, or newspaper articles with your name in, or one other thing I forget.

If you respond to the challenge with your legal ID, this is only accepted if the name on your legal ID corresponds with their naming policy - and Google+ doesn't tell you what that naming policy is.

So, Since last night I've been educated on what names Google+ allows. And how many people are being shut out.

You are required to display one 'first' name, one 'last' name. Both must be one word.

You may not have three names on display, so all native Spanish speakers are out and so are lots of Chinese people. No punctuation, so goodbye go a lot of people of Irish descent and a slew of people from African countries. No diminutives (parts of names like Von, Van, De), so goodbye to lots of Dutch and French, Arab and Scots descended people. No single names, so goodbye to all those mononymed Indonesians and Australians. Last names must be longer than two letters, so all the Ngs and Os and Eks are now gone (yes, those are all real surnames). No hyphens, so goodbye lots of British and Norwegian people. I'm missing a lot of countries out, feel absolutely free to enlighten me.

If your legal, tax, ID name doesn't fit the policies, then Google tells you, edit it until it does. Or we'll suspend you.

The number of people in the world who actually do have one first name and one last name as their 'name they are known by' is actually a tiny minority. Google+, by its naming policy, has made it very exclusive indeed.

There's also an unspoken penalty if you have an Android phone connected to google, get a Google+ account and then have your Facebook account suspended. Suddenly, your phone will have no contacts list, calendar or gmail. It becomes, basically, a rather shiny portable web browser that you can dial phone numbers into.