googleing your name - what to do

[caccamolle]

Could be worse, I searched your username here and it brings up lots of posts from bodybuilders with soft poo!

LOL

truly, thanks god I have always been very diligent in almost never using my name in forums and such ! Then of course in this particular case it's got nothing to do with it - no way to protect ourselves I guess if others refer to you ..

PS: I should really change my user name here

 

[Pink∆Floyd]

LOL

truly, thanks god I have always been very diligent in almost never using my name in forums and such ! Then of course in this particular case it's got nothing to do with it - no way to protect ourselves I guess if others refer to you ..

PS: I should really change my user name here

PS: You can't

 

[notjustjay]

PS: You can't

You can, though it's not as easy as changing your settings in a control panel.

I learned years ago that Google (and Deja News, before that) are pretty relentless in keeping archives. Even using a fake email address on Usenet didn't help because, well, all you need to do is search for the fake address and up comes every discussion I've ever been a part of. There have been some embarrassing trolls, flamewars, etc. that I'm not particularly proud of.

Luckily my real name seems somewhat common and if you Google for it, you get dozens of results, and the first one that's really me is on page 4. (Hmm, come to think of it, I'm not sure I want me to be that hard to find, either...)

 

[eRondeau]

There are dozens, hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of people who share your name (depending on its uniqueness). That's why law enforcement and credit bureau people always ask your date-of-birth and place-of-birth, in order to filter "you" from all the other people with the same name. There are probably 50,000 "John William Smith"'s in the world but hopefully only one born in Avon, NC on July 8, 1982. So to get stressed-out because searching your first name + your surname on Google returns some childish nitwit's blog posting is silly. And if a prospective employer actually believes that every "John Smith" he finds on Google is you, then you probably don't want to work for him because he's an idiot.

Having said that, it is increasingly common for prospective employers to require access to your Facebook account to see what you're up to in your personal life, but they can only do that with your permission.