Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

googleing your name - what to do

C

caccamolle

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 18, 2005
359
0
Is there a way to change/affect the sorting (if not more) of the results of a google search of my own name ?? or where could I learn more about this ?

I could give more details, but kind of boring, but the thing is the very first result is from a forum/blog where someone insults me. In truth, in that very thread subsequent messages are totally in my favor, so actually it looks pretty good, however, the search engine shows the topic of the thread which is bad !!! and it's just a stupid forum, how does it get to the top of the search results kind of fascinates me.

Any hints/suggestions ?

thx
 
eternlgladiator said:
Is it a big deal? What are you concerned about?
Click to expand...

It bothers me that the very thing that shows up when I google my name is something like " how crazy is *my name* " as the subject line in a thread started by some kid. It's not a huge deal, but you know like these days for example the first thing recruiters do is google your name .... it's not pretty.
 
I had a very similar situation a couple of years ago. I realised there was a possibility it might negatively impact me in the future, so I set out to displace it from the top spot. Previously I had held a domain name I'd used as a placeholder for my personal email account, but the first thing I did was develop that into a site. Below I will outline the steps I took:

  • Develop a personal website with an About Me page
  • Place links to all social media websites you are active on in the sidebar
  • Go to all the social media sites and create links back to your personal website
  • Ensure you update your site regularly - even with a date timestamp, as Google appear to look on this favourably rather than a static page

This is all I did. Nevermind that the website that needlessly offended me has since been dropped by Google altogether, but this was a good exercise in online profile development. I now have an easy to access repertoire of all websites I am active on, which lends support to potential clients. I have had a very difficult time displacing Twitter from the top spot on Google, however, and have not been able to do so. All other major search engines now list my site as first though. :)

Otherwise you could try contacting the forum admins and ask for the thread to either be removed, or have your name removed from the thread title. That would do the same job without the effort. In my case, this was unsuccessful, but you could give it a go.
 
I didn't realize the Internet was a popularity contest for people outside of the sports and entertainment industries. :rolleyes:

Besides, if a potential employer is dumb enough to take an obvious attack by kids on an online forum seriously... I probably don't want to work there anyway!
 
SuperCachetes said:
I didn't realize the Internet was a popularity contest for people outside of the sports and entertainment industries. :rolleyes:

Besides, if a potential employer is dumb enough to take an obvious attack by kids on an online forum seriously... I probably don't want to work there anyway!
Click to expand...

well, depends of what the forum/thread is about, but a potential employer could look unfavorably to him even be participating to said forum/thread.

easiest solution is to contact the mods and have your name deleted/modified (a couple of asterisks would be probably sufficient) or the post/thread removed

to build a site to develop as your own hub works (on a small scale like this), but is laborious and time consuming

a secondary piece of advice: don't use your actual name when posting in the future
 
Don't panic said:
well, depends of what the forum/thread is about, but a potential employer could look unfavorably to him even be participating to said forum/thread.

easiest solution is to contact the mods and have your name deleted/modified (a couple of asterisks would be probably sufficient) or the post/thread removed

to build a site to develop as your own hub works (on a small scale like this), but is laborious and time consuming

a secondary piece of advice: don't use your actual name when posting in the future
Click to expand...

thx, good stuff.

To be honest I never use my name anywhere except for a couple of mistakes, but here someone is simply referring to my name in the thread subject line, I don't even participate in that forum and never have !
 
thank you all for some good ideas.

I have to say, this has to do in good part with my own curiosity as how it can be that google ranks first this one particular post from a forum of no particular relevance.

I have noticed that this happens a lot actually, forum posts get picked up often
 
caccamolle said:
It bothers me that the very thing that shows up when I google my name is something like " how crazy is *my name* " as the subject line in a thread started by some kid. It's not a huge deal, but you know like these days for example the first thing recruiters do is google your name .... it's not pretty.
Click to expand...

Why on earth would anybody google "how crazy is [your name]"? I can understand if this happened if you googled just your name, but why would anyone, especially a possible employer, google "how crazy is [your name]"? I mean, that's just....crazy.
 
caccamolle said:
Is there a way to change/affect the sorting (if not more) of the results of a google search of my own name ?? or where could I learn more about this ?

I could give more details, but kind of boring, but the thing is the very first result is from a forum/blog where someone insults me. In truth, in that very thread subsequent messages are totally in my favor, so actually it looks pretty good, however, the search engine shows the topic of the thread which is bad !!! and it's just a stupid forum, how does it get to the top of the search results kind of fascinates me.

Any hints/suggestions ?

thx
Click to expand...

The best thing to do would be to produce sites that would enhance your reputation. The internet is filled with junk, and it will never get cleaned. What you can do is make professional stuff fill up the google rankings, this is far more productive than trying to remove all trace.

Start with facebook, twitter, linkedin and tumblr.
 
highdough said:
Why on earth would anybody google "how crazy is [your name]"? I can understand if this happened if you googled just your name, but why would anyone, especially a possible employer, google "how crazy is [your name]"? I mean, that's just....crazy.
Click to expand...

dude, you cannot read !
 
likemyorbs said:
Google me all you want. My name is Jason Bennett, good luck finding the right one!
Click to expand...

good point, however in my case it's too bad that (a) my name (first + last) is totally unique and (b) that very first result unequivocally points to me.

Moreover, if a recruiter for example googled you he would probably have enough info to identify you in a search
 
caccamolle said:
dude, you cannot read !
Click to expand...

If I couldn't read, there would be no way to read your response, but since I could read your response, I am, in fact, able to read. What I did was MISread. Big difference. For that, I apologize. But at least I can read. And if I couldn't actually read, pointing it out like that in front of everyone would be incredibly insensitive of you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back