Spokesman...
How could Google be so daft as to let someone called "Wen-Ai Yu" speak about identity verification?
Google has begun loading "verification badges" onto profiles created in its online estate, in a move to flush out imposters and solidify its ID-linking plans. Mountain View said the badge will prove an individual is who they say they are, just as Twitter previously labelled some of its accounts with a "verified" button to help …
I share the same name as the lead singer of Bauhaus. I reckon if anyone should get the "verified" badge, he should. Unfortunately, it unclear who counts as a "celebrity" in the flat fields of the Google cubicle farms. That Peter Murphy did most of his notable work with Bauhaus in the early eighties, well before many of Google's employees were born.
You'd hope that anybody in the company could verify their favorite artist. Take purely hypothetical Angie "Siouxsie" Bradshaw from senior management, who stomped the dancefloors in her Docs when she was a wee lass with the best of them, met her hubbie at the clubs, and conceived a couple of kindergoths to "Disintegration". "Heard of Peter Murphy?" "Dear, I've got his solo work on the original vinyl."
However, Google use minimum wage idiots for enforcing their naming policy. They've rejected quite a few people for using legal monomyns. So they'll probably use the same minimum wage idiots for verification. The task of verifying Peter Murphy (him, not me) will fall to some 18-year old flunky who thinks she's edgy because she's got a labret piercing, thinks Lady Gaga is alternative, and associated the word "Bowie" with the knife, but never the singer. "Peter Murphy? Never heard of him!" Ah: the arrogance and the cluelessness of youth.
And at this point, I'll wander off in disgust. Ankle-length coal black trenchcoat? That's the one, thank you.
Since when have celebs used real names? Am I wrong in thinking most of their stage names are actually very different. Will Chaka Khan be forced to use her real name Yvette Marie Stevens? (no idea why I chose Chaka Khan as an example, so don't ask).
I share my name with a cartoon character... I wonder how long it'll be before my account is taken from me to make way for some fictional character to have their own account!