Internet Anonymity. Really?

Anonymous speech is often valued, even protected in some situations by the First Amendment. On this blog, we have posted frequently on legal efforts to assure that corporate and government critics (and others) are free to speak anonymously on the Internet. But do the legal nicities matter in reality? Andy Baio at wired.com has explained at length how the identity of a supposedly anonymous blogger who was "using all the ordinary precautions for hiding his identity" was revealed in under a minute using Google Analytics. (I don't know whether and to what extent Baio is right, but his post seemed worth a look.)