May 8th, 2007
Google Controls Your Identity
“Googling a person” has been part of the vernacular for some time now, but Google’s control over identity has become so powerful that it’s now influencing baby naming choices — at least that’s the hook in this WSJ piece on Google and identity:
So when Ms. Wilson, now 32, was pregnant with her first child, she ran every baby name she and her husband, Justin, considered through Google to make sure her baby wouldn’t be born unsearchable. Her top choice: Kohler, an old family name that had the key, rare distinction of being uncommon on the Web when paired with Wilson. “Justin and I wanted our son’s name to be as special as he is,” she explains.
There’s the story of how Ted Leonsis took over the search engine results page for “Ted Leonsis” by starting a blog and linkbaitng through celebrity name dropping. I don’t recall what the Google results for Scott Karp looked like before I started blogging, but now it’s me for pages and pages — not why I started blogging, but a striking consequence. I even have the top results for Scot Karp with one “t,” displacing Scot Karp, a Miami real estate agent (of course I put a “nofollow” tag on this link).
I don’t necessarily like all of the items on my SERP, but a high volume of links doesn’t mean you have control over the links — it’s probably sound advice not to “mess” with anyone who has access to high authority domains. Your SERP can be a reflection of how effective you have been at relationship management online. I certainly learned my lesson about playing nice with the SEO community (most of whom, to their credit, played nice with me, even when I was on my soapbox) — this could be applied to dealing with any group, although it’s particularly true when dealing with a group that knows how to work the web. I suppose you could argue that, just as there’s no such thing as bad PR, there’s no such thing as bad inbound links — just ask Jason Calacanis.
The problem for most people is that they don’t have a platform for influencing their identity in Google or other search engines. Anyone can start a blog, sure, but that may not help if your name is John Smith, or even a less common name if you don’t get any inbound links. This has, not surprisingly, lead to a demand for identity SEO (from the WSJ piece):
Some people in similar straits have used services that can help generate more prominent placement for them in search results. Krishna De, a personal branding and marketing consultant in Dublin, signed up with Ziggs Inc. in 2005 after she left a corporate career and set out on her own. At the time, results for the Hindu deity Krishna crowded out links to her site. Ziggs tries to get profile pages individuals create with it to appear high in search results, and for a $4.95 monthly fee buys ads that appear along search results on sites such as Google’s to link to a client’s profile. “If you’re not found in search results, people start to wonder why,” says Ziggs CEO Tim DeMello.
A number of players, from the new to old, are trying to provide a user-controlled platform for identity management in search:
Professional networking site LinkedIn Corp. says its members’ profile pages often turn up high in Google search results when the users opt to make the pages accessible to the public. Marquis Who’s Who, whose print directories were a go-to place for finding important people in pre-search-engine days, says it has been testing a service where individuals can search its online database of more than 1.3 million people, paying on a per-search basis.
Matt Cutts had some interesting suggestions that imply the couple who researched baby names in Google maybe isn’t so crazy:
“Any time you can distinguish yourself with a distinctive name or a distinctive characteristic that sticks out in people’s minds, that’s going to be the best solution,” says Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer.
It’s striking how complete Google’s dominance is in the realm of search-driven identity. I get traffic from Yahoo Search and Live Search, but never navigational or identity traffic, i.e. people searching for “Scott Karp” or “Publishing 2.0″ in order to find my blog or find out more about me.
It will be interesting to see whether pieces like the one in the WSJ will intensify the interest in Google identity management and in services and platforms for such management. There are few professions or careers that couldn’t benefit from effective Google identity management.
You can imagine all the “John Smiths” battling it out for the top positions like sellers of ringtones.
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[IMG] Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0: Google Controls Your Identity
[...] Karp at Publishing 2.0 writes about it under the headline Google controls your identity. “It will be interesting to [...]
[...] Thanks as always to Good Morning Silicon Valley for giving me the heads up on this. But then again, I found out they look at Techmeme, which is where I found this story as well. More at Valleywag, Buzzworthy, Publishing 2.0. [...]
be born unsearchable. Her top choice: Kohler, an old family name that had the key, rare distinction of being uncommon on the Web when paired with Wilson. “Justin and I wanted our son’s name to be as special as he is,†she explains.†- Google Controls Your Identity » Publishing 2.0
experiment (which was a rousing success compared to my failed Flickr experiment). It all comes down to how well you’re name Googles, as the WSJ puts it. And to Google well, you need an effective platform, which as Scot Karp points out, is not always easy to come by: The problem for most people is that they don’t have a platform for influencing their identity in Google or other search engines. Anyone can start a blog, sure, but that may not help if your name is John Smith, or even
Scott - in fact as people look for us online not just the name of our businesses, it is increasingly important to ensure that we build our personal brand on line.
I have certainly found authoring a business blog a great way to provide value to clients and also to increase my search engine rankings.
Ziggs.com provided me a great way to build a professional profile online and guarantee could be found in the search engines and for those who do not wish to blog, invest in search engine marketing or build a personal career profile it is a fast and effective tool.
Ziggs is a platform I recommend to all my clients and even though you can find me now in the natural listings it is a great complement to supporting my brand online.
[...] The New Google Analytics, Google Reader for Wii, Google Identity Challenges Google is hitting the news today (good and bad). 1. Rough type suggests google is ready to police the web. Google will use new software to automatically identify compromised web pages in its database and label them as "potentially harmful" in its search results. 2. Google launches Reader for Wii the new interface even makes use of the buttons found on your Wiimote. 3. Don’t forget to read about the New Google Analytics. 4. Finally, Google controls your identity [...]
Google Controls Your Identity  - May 8, 2007  - Scott Karp
whether pieces like the one in the WSJ will intensify the interest in Google identity management and in services and platforms for such management. There are few professions or careers that couldn’t benefit from effective Google identity management. Google Controls Your Identity » Publishing 2.0: [IMG] Posted Piers Fawkes on May 9, 2007 | Filed under: Death Of Privacy | Article Link | Visit PSFK [IMG] [IMG]
acquisition, MSFT’s experience in OS should enable them to tie the online experiences together in a meaningful way. I refer both to multiple platforms (web, PC, phone) and to varied online services (see my previous post on web 3.0). There is some fear of Google’s information collection and konwledge of my identity today that may open the door for MSFT on this front. I always tread carefully on these kinds of posts but thought this might be thought provoking.
It was quite an interesting article. I’m lucky I’m the only one in the world with my name
- Except for the fact that no one can pronounce it or spell it.
It used to be that if you entered Lail in Google, the first result was always actress Leah Lail (whatever happened to her, anyway), but alas, she’s been dethroned by a vineyard. Tony Lail Vineyards is No. 1. The Zelenka piece as well as one from Scott Karp suggest some ways to move your name up Google’s search results. But seriously, if your name is Lail and someone enters your name in Google, you’ll likely be on the first page of results. Maybe all those mispronunciations are worth it, aren’t they. Mr.
[...] Scott Karp goes into some interesting stories of people obsessed with controlling the results of Google searches on their [...]
[...] Google Controls Your Identity [...]
Inquisitive employers, friends and love interests increasingly express their curiosity by Googling others online. This practice has become so prevalent that it even factors in for parents naming their babies-to-be, according to Publishing 2.0 (via Wall Street Journal). One set of parents decided on the name Kohler Wilson because it was uncommon when sought-for on the web. Then there’s Ted Leonsis, who dominated search results after he started a blog and drew views to his
[...] practice has become so prevalent that it even factors in for parents naming their babies-to-be, according to Publishing 2.0 (via Wall Street [...]
any project there can be conflicting requirements, but in some circles SEO has become such a strong force it crushes other business drivers, and I wonder if that is a good or bad thing. Is SEO the end-all? And on a last note, here is an interesting piece
[...] Google Controls Your Identity [...]
[...] Google’s control over identity really is astonishing. I received an email with this opening line, which I just assumed was some weird type of spam: Eagerly waiting for Insomnia Media Group’s web site to launch as Variety story caught my attention. [...]
entering captchas because it thinks I am a robot (even though I visit the language tools page and paste in just one or two words manually). Me thinks they have a bit more BETA bashing to do on this one, before they can provide an automated service! Google Controls Your Identity already, which is why I registered a “me” domain recently. In that one, you can’t beat them, so you make use of it. Google Entertainment BBC NEWS also tells us that Google invests in genetics firm
Google’s control over identity really is astonishing. I received an email with this opening line, which I just assumed was some weird type of spam: Eagerly waiting for Insomnia Media Group\’s web site to launch as Variety story caught my attention.