Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we've begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn.
Clearly this is a big incentive to sign up for a Google profile, and adds a bit of competition for all the ego-surfers out there ;)
You should have really been nicer when you broke up with that last lover.
Seriously, this is Google Linkin. And it's a smart move on their part, especially in this economy. Don't you google people you are hiring?
... and I don't mind one bit <g>.
Im wondering if they get some info from Facebook and MySpace data centers, cause the page also listed the places she lived.
You should have really been nicer when you broke up with that last lover.A girl that I didnt want to be reminded of added me on facebook the other day! I noticed im too addicted to Facebook and my network to be able to sign out!
As for privacy, there's no need to fill in all the blanks in a Google profile.
Searching for things like names and companies has happened since long before the internet (like telephone directories) - I've always been surprised that none of the major search engines has really exploited this. I mean, we've all searched for someone's name on Google, haven't we?
I also see more sites where you have to login before you can do anything and only frontpage is in the Google index.
But for those with much more common names, this may be the time to seriously reconsider how they would prefer their presence on the Internet to show.
There are clear dangers of both abuse of the system, and an expansion of the scope of Google's method, but IMO that's for a different discussion.
As it is, it seems to me that people who don't object to being found in Google for their name (and even their photograph) get (optional) additional exposure.
What's to keep someone with an axe to grind from creating a fake profile, filling it with disparaging information, and getting it to rank on the first page for a name search?
What's to keep someone with an axe to grind from creating a fake profile, filling it with disparaging information, and getting it to rank on the first page for a name search?
I would class that as "abuse of the system", arieng. IMO, this requires sites that publish personal information to police their members effectively.
More generally, I wouldn't want to be unduly practical and look at Google's record on, for instance, local search to determine how safe and reliable the data is. But I believe it's a wider problem than whether any individual company is reprocessing publicly available data.
How do you know someone on the internet is who they say they are? Basically, you don't. But you haven't had any evidence-based confirmation that most of the people you meet day-to-day are who they say they are, either. We all rely on other things than search engines for that ;)
Clearly this is a big incentive to sign up for a Google profile, and adds a bit of competition for all the ego-surfers out there.
You know what I see? Google trying to get their fingers into the Social Media market. And just think, what if they cut juice off from all the popular profiles and left it on for Google profiles? Nah, they surely wouldn't do that.
I see some "double standards" issues arising when certain SM sites pass equity and others don't. Hey, I'm an avid supporter of Google Search, but they missed that Social Media Ship and it might be a little too late to join the party.
I know its tough Google, seeing all the stories about Twitter lately and very little Google. Or at least that is how it seems. Twitter this, Twitter that, FB this, FB that. Everyone is talking about Social Media and poor Google is left standing there with Search, what do we do now? I think this is the year that Search changes face 180 degrees. Big shakeups before the end of 2009. That's my prediction. It's almost a given in the current economy. :(
Now, from the bushes, Big Brother is waving a flag with a big "G" on it and he's starting to droll and foam at the mouth....
You know what I see? Google trying to get their fingers into the Social Media market. And just think, what if they cut juice off from all the popular profiles and left it on for Google profiles? Nah, they surely wouldn't do that.
No, they wouldn't, based on their past and current behavior. (Look up "search engine" in Google, and you'll find Google in the #7 position. They still include AltaVista and Lycos, for heaven's sake. So why even speculate that they'd ever "cut the juice off" from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn?)
Now this.
--seeing all the stories about Twitter lately and very little Google--
I might be wrong on this one, but didn't I hear rumor recently that big G is Buying little "t"? for heaven's sake.
there you go: you might been googleT, if so.
Hmmm, I wonder how people reacted when the phone companies proposed a directory with everyone's phone number and address (and then charge you, if you DON'T want to be included).
Maybe Google could introduce a "reverse Inktomi" concept: PFE (Pay For Exclusion).
Great, I already got the NSA, CIA, FBI and NAACP spying on me and reading my emails and listening in on my cell phone conversations....
Someone has been a bad boy...
Says us (the technically ninjered)...
Most Facebookers I've spoken with don't even know what Privacy options are or how to set them. one thing is providing the functionality and another is providing a simple explanation of what it does and why it might be important.
In between there are lots of online businesses at the moment, doing a lots of profile personal data exploitation.
2clean the web is what we need to do :)
Guilty!
How reassuring.
