Proponents of pseudonymity scored a major victory today, when Google executive Vic Gundotra revealed at the Web 2.0 Summit that social networking service Google+ will begin supporting pseudonyms and other types of identity. According to Mashable, Google+ will be "adding features that will 'support other forms of identity' in the next few months."

Google's statement is obvious bullshit, and here's why. The way you "support" pseudonyms is as follows:

Stop deleting peoples' accounts when you suspect that the name they are using is not their legal name. There is no step 2.

Whatever Google is planning cannot be that, because they think it will take them months to implement. This means they are planning something far more complicated than telling their "abuse" team, "Here is our new policy", and so you can be certain that they're going to fuck it up in some new and exciting way.

My guess? I'll bet they still require you to register with your "real" name, but then they'll graciously allow you to have a linked nickname or two, meaning they're still fully prepared to roll over on you to authoritarian governments or advertisers at the drop of a hat.

Fuck those guys, seriously.

Previously, previously, previously.