There's irony in Google's actions.

The company is known for keeping products in what often seems like "perpetual beta." It ordinarily likes to bake things until they're well done before removing the beta label from them. That kind of patience would have served Google well in the latest situation.

Microsoft researcher and Harvard Berkman Center fellow Danah Boyd didn't mince any words recently when evaluating Google's efforts to enforce a "real names" policy on Google+.

It's "just plain stupid," she declared in her Apophenia blog.

By cracking down hard on Google+ users trying to open accounts with "handles" rather than real names, the company threw gasoline on a fire it could have easily kept under control, Boyd argued. "It's no longer about whether or not the 'real names' policy was a good idea in the first place; it's now an act of oppression," she asserted.