Google Recognizes You
Google accounts and Google+ now support nicknames, names in script, and pseudonym or "pen names" in addition to its required "real names" policy.
Google's policy has historically been strict adherence to common first and last name authorship on profiles and accounts requiring registration. Google's requirements mandating real names have in the past been unyielding, with sudden suspensions of accounts set up under false names or "pseudonyms," claiming the quality of network search is affected by false or inaccurate names. Other or new users can't find you if the name is not accurately portrayed. A false or inaccurate name might also drive inappropriate behavior since a user could claim indifference or no affiliation to a misrepresented account.
Bradley Horowitz, Google+ vice president of product management provides, "Over the next week, we'll be adding support for alternate names – be they nicknames, maiden names, or names in another script – alongside your common name. This name will show up on your Google+ profile and in the hovercards which appear over your name. In the next few weeks, we'll be displaying it more broadly as part of your name in other areas of Google+ as well. So if you're Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jane Doe (Smith), or Saurabh Sharma (सौरभ शर्मा), you can now communicate your identity the way you want to."
Once identified on a profile, user names will be adjusted across Google services. Users who wish to add an alternate or nickname can modify settings on a Google+ profile, by clicking 'Edit Profile' then select the name in question, click 'More Options,' and add the additional information.
According to Mr. Horowitz, Google's data analysis which is based on name appeals, claims 60 percent of the disgruntled users want nicknames, another 20 percent which allows for businesses that may have wrongly registered an organization through personal account settings rather than as a Google+ Pages account which the company launched in November for this purpose.
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