Mission Accomplished? Not Quite…

To all those claiming victory in the nymwars, hold on to your horses and read between the lines. Nothing that has been said indicates any kind of understanding from Google on the debate over use of pseudonyms. Phrases like “the issue is technology, resources and the atmosphere the company wanted to set” sounds suspiciously like them not giving us the ability to choose our persona/name on the site or treating pseudonyms as identity, but rather them adding some technical capabilities that could pass for pseudonym support – like an extension of the current capability to set up pseudonyms in addition to your real name. If they simply tweaked this so that you still have to provide your real name, but you can hide it from everyone, would you consider that sufficient? What if doing so requires filling out a hardship form explaining why your pseudonym is important? I think not.

Maybe I’m being too cynical. Maybe there is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the fact that Google seems to have heard the protestors. But don’t go declaring victory just yet.