back to article Celebrity Google+rs do need steenkin' badges

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 …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Bert 1
    Coat

    Spokesman...

    How could Google be so daft as to let someone called "Wen-Ai Yu" speak about identity verification?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    NO U!

    I have a G+ account using a certain Brit celeb comedians name. Let's see how long it takes them to kill it off. Of course what about those people who's names really are the same as a celebs?

    1. Oninoshiko

      hrm...

      That's actually a good question, what ABOUT people how happen to have the same name a a celeb?

      1. Peter Murphy
        Coat

        Like myself, for instance.

        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.

  3. DrXym

    Michael Bolton

    Pity the poor fools who share a name with a celeb.

    1. Matt Piechota

      Pity?

      Why, they can get on Same Name!

      http://www.cbs.com/shows/same_name/

    2. The BigYin

      That is going to be funny

      How many Marshall Mathers are there in the world?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Ah, they'll know the real Marshall mathers.........

        He'll be the one standing up :-)

    3. zen1
      Coat

      Office Space...

      punchlines come to mind...

  4. .james
    FAIL

    like wipo?

    you set up an account & then some celebutard says all their fans think it belongs to them, so google says, ok celeb, there you go.

    You're left to start again, if not banned for life.

  5. ratfox
    Trollface

    We apologize, there is already a user named Will Smith

    We have contacted the authorities of your country, and you can choose to be renamed to either of:

    - Will1432 Smith

    - Octavius Smith

    - Will Mangiafazulla

  6. TonyHoyle

    That's an interesting point

    Google + insists on 'real names' but how can they do that if they object to someone sharing their real name with a celeb?

    Of course, as a google apps user I'm already pre-banned from having a google plus account. No bad thing, from the sounds of it..

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    A verifed Charles Arthur?

    ...the real one is beyond parody.

  8. Arion

    cacert

    I wonder if they'll use cacert as one of the ways that people can prove themselves.

  9. Phaedrus
    Trollface

    Real names?

    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!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    I'm Spartacus

    and so's my wife. This is madness!

  11. Stevie

    Bah!

    *My* name, Christian, Middle Initial and Surname, is so common the woods are full of me. I doubt Google has thought of that . I backed off Google+ when they announced they would "unify" all my (now) Google owned accounts, ensuring that if someone Stealz my IDz they stealz *all* my IDz.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    makes the sleb feel important

    For some reason...slev makes me think of Slurm. maybe bacause they're both slightly slimy and go down easy....

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like