Google+ just announced a simple tweak to its profile settings that lets you completely customise the gender field in your profile. In the past, you could select male, female or other. Now, Google offers male, female, decline to state, and custom, which prompts you to describe your gender however you’d like. Good job, Google+!
Other social networks have tried and basically failed to deal with gender identity. Facebook, for instance, turned heads about a year ago when it announced that it would offer more than just male and female. But ultimately its custom option wasn’t custom at all. It offered 10 more options that may or may not fit any given user’s gender. Google’s open-ended approach makes much more sense for those who don’t want to express their identity a pre-programmed category. [Google+]