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Google could easily promote and encourage real names a la Facebook and still let pseudonymous profiles slide. I think that the typical first/last name convention is good, and that it'd be fine to require pseudonyms that follow that convention.

Posting things you want to keep private on the internet is bad for privacy. Real neames are not.

Privacy is about as binary as security - that is, not at all.

Friends can find you more easily using your real name? Try that if you have a very common name. There are over 80 pages of G+ results to sort through if you have mine, and I have it easy. Friends with common Chinese or Indian names have it a lot worse.

People who aren't friends can too, and you can't exactly coyly avoid people in many forums.