What is Your Real Name(TM)?
May 1, 2005
As I was on Amazon looking for a review for the next-great-business-book-that-is-supposed-to-single-handedly-solve-all-problems-in-the-universe, I ran across this little logo, 
, and I was wondering what the heck it meant.
Amazon uses an interesting concept radical to the virtual world. As consumers in the past have been skeptical and even mistrusting when it comes to divulging their personal information on the net, instead using AOL-screenname-ized online personalities.
A Real Name(TM) attribution is a signature based on the name entered by the author as the cardholder name on his or her credit card, i.e. the author represents this name as his/her identity in the “real world.”
So the message this sends to the user is that this guy is not blowing smoke out of his 455– He could potentially lose credibility by giving false information. Is this a big deal? Not necessarily. But it opens the door to a new concept of verification of an online identity a-la-verisignability. Is there potential for a business model that runs based on identifying real-honest-to-goodness truthful people (and not crazed net-villains), without divulging their vital stats? Hmmm…