When I read Violet Blue’s account of her struggles to maintain her Google+ account, it occurred to me that Google isn’t just making life hard on some of its most dedicated users, it’s also making life hard on itself. More than ever I was reminded that Google is an engineering company, not a people company. So, here’s my short list of some very basic, very human, things Google could do to make life better both for its users and for its own staffers.
First, Google doesn’t really have a policy on Google+ names yet. Oh, they came up with something–everyone will need to use their real names!–but clearly they never really thought that out. After all, some of their own top people don’t use their “real” names!
So, until Google has really thought out and laid out what the heck their naming policy is going to be, may I suggest that Google cut everyone some slack with their names? Sure get rid of “Darth Vader” or “Iluv youlongtime,” but let’s use some common sense with most people shall we?