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Comment by vladd | Hacker News Reader

Eric Schmidt:

  The people who built the Internet did not get a stable
  version of identity; You need identity, in the sense that 
  you are a person, this is who you are these are your
  friends and so on … The issue on the Internet is not the
  lack of Facebook, the issue on the Internet is the lack 
  of identity.

(from http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/09/eric-schmidt-on-gauging-goo... )

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Identity is not the same as "name on your birth certificate". Skud's identity is Skud, not Kirrily Roberts.

I'm all for having stable identities on social networking services, but that has nothing to do with legal names vs pseudonyms.

I agree that effective identity is about who you can become on the Internet. But there really isn't any middle ground between imposing the name on one's birth certificate and letting people create whatever identity they want - after all, every pseudonym has to begin as anonymous pseudonym and gain connections.

The G+ names policy doesn't say "name on your birth certificate". It says "the name you commonly go by in real life", see: http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/answer.py?answer=1228271

Even if Skud does go by that name in daily life, I don't see how it comes as any surprise that he is suspended pending review for that name. He even says it himself:

> I knew I was at risk of my account (under the name of “Skud .”) being suspended

The policy that they are enforcing is that you must use your legal name, leading many people to the obvious conclusion that the policy is bullshit.

> The issue on the Internet is not the lack of Facebook, the issue on the Internet is the lack of identity.

How would one use PirateBay with a real identity? Or browse porn websites? Or anonymously flirting with people in chat rooms? What's wrong with this Internet? </rhetorical questions>

Personalized search and targeted ads can be monetized very well when you have strong identity.

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