In a dramatic turnaround from policy created — and enforced — three years ago, Google has now reversed its "real names" policy. Users can now use any name they want across Google services.
The company announced, "there are no more restrictions on what name you can use."
A post Tuesday afternoon on Google's own Plus account apologized for the policy, saying:
When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.
(...) Today, we are taking the last step: there are no more restrictions on what name you can use.
We know you've been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users.
For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be.
Thank you for expressing your opinions so passionately, and thanks for continuing to make Google+ the thoughtful community that it is.
Read more at: Google reverses 'real names' policy, apologizes | ZDNet