This is my deal – there is so much to learn, so much to know, so much to share that when I find some tidbit, I just want to write about it so you can benefit from my words. One may call me a teacher, a trainer, an educator and yes – I am all of the above because I just assume you want to learn too.
When was the last time you searched your name on the internet or ‘Googled’ yourself? I suggest you go to google.com and enter your name and see what comes up. Now try it in yahoo.com and duckduckgo.com. You might find unique links or information from each site.
Is the information that comes up accurate? If not, can you track down the website and get it changed? As you move towards anything in this connected world, you can bet your name will be searched. Want to buy a house, sell a house, rent an office, get a job, buy an appliance, or anything else – if so, you can bet your name will be checked online.
Potential employers might find you on LinkedIn and learn all about your past jobs, read your recommendations and possibly even contact past colleagues. And they won’t stop at LinkedIn, they will certainly look for you on Facebook. Here they will see the other side of you – the family, funny, wacky side. Or they will see the stupid, drunken and sullen side of you that writes with a sarcastic tone or other such negative image.
Did you sign up for Classmates, Meetup, Youtube, Google Photos, Calorie-Count, Flickr, Pintrest, or other social/gaming networking sites? If so, your name will probably show up in quite a few search results. Do you have a blog, website, or have you posted articles or photos? Let’s hope they are clean, informative and inspiring to someone who is looking to hire you, date you, enroll you or any other possible scenarios.
We are connected – like it or not. We are ‘out there’ for the good people to find us knowing that bad people will find us too. Take a moment and go to duckduckgo.com and see what you can find on your name. Maybe nothing at all. Maybe lots. Maybe it’s all ok.
Related:
- DuckDuckGo Review: An Alternative to Google (sonicalkaline.wordpress.com)
- You Will Be Googled (mashable.com)
- DuckDuckGo is Your Secure Search Engine Choice (vikitech.com)
- DuckDuckGo attacks Google’s filter bubble (philbradley.typepad.com)
- Don’t Track Me, Google: a plugin to reclaim your search URLs (researchsupporthub.northampton.ac.uk)
- Social Media Strategy for Small Business 2013: A Totally Honest Look at Social Networks (amsterdamprinting.com)
- You Will Be Googled (mashable.com)
- 15 Most Popular Networking Sites (www.ebizmba.com)
Happily ... after retirement 
Well, I do google myself sometimes. The first page and the first image me only. But that’s because of two things – my not-so-common name and I have a blog on blogspot (which I don’t update anymore). 🙂
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Yes, I have Googled myself, MargeKatherine. Have never heard of duckduck.go, think I will try it.
blessings ~ maxi
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Good tips…..I have not explored Duck Duck Go but now I shall 🙂
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I’ve Googled myself several times. My husband’s cousin never married so we have the same name and it is very distinctive. So I have two personalities – one that lives in the Midwest, works as a physician’s assistant and lives with her lesbian lover or the one who lives in Virginia, does corporate tax work and used to write about Internet taxation frequently. Thankfully my husband’s cousin is a nice person and I don’t have to worry about identity theft or getting in any kind of trouble.
Nancy
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That was fun. I have such a common name there were lots of them, but I was there.
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The best thing about duckduckgo.com is they don’t track your questions, comments and queries like google does. It lets you be anonymous.
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It’s interesting to use various search engines to see what items appear and where on the list. One search engine focuses on blog posts and others on past comments or articles. The things is – we leave a big virtual footprint, that’s for sure!
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Gosh I’ve never heard of duckduckgo but sure enough I’m there. We can’t go back now can we? we are most of us public citizens.
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It’s good to have a high profile if you want to be found – which is not always the case. The good thing to know is ‘IF’ we want to get noticed, we just have to keep blogging, commenting, Facebooking, etc!
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you got me…I’m going to try it!
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Thanks! What about tagging my name in my blog update?
Does that help?
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With the Clickbook 12, you can turn any Internet, CD ROM or Windows
file into books from a size and elegance, homemade cards, leaflets or brochures, tiles printouts, CD ROM jewel cases,
day planner pages, etc. We supply seen this anti-piracy advertisement within
South Bend in theaters and TV, but wait, how true may be the
advertisement. z – Butterfly is a nice starting point for looking for
what the user would like to watch because it
displays a whole lot of movies for download from
all throughout the Web.
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Currently it appears like BlogEngine is the top blogging platform out there right now.
(from what I’ve read) Is that what you are using on
your blog?
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