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Ungoogle yourself
By arzhou | September 6, 2007
Ungoogle yourself? What is that? Well if you actually do a search on your name via google, you can be surprise on what might turn up. A female friend was surprised that when she googled her name, the first google link was the homepage of a porn star. Imagine what a future employer might think!
Its quite a common trend now for employers to google potential employees, many fail to realise that their myspace or facebook accounts or blogs are being seen by employers. And they never bother to actually check what photos they put up, what blogpost they write etc etc. Especially if you complain about your boss and your blog has your real name, and maybe 1 month ago you mentioned the company you work at. That is asking for trouble. Furthermore you never know when sensitive information can be found online… If given enough time, I can probably find out anyone’s address, former school etc etc etc
So how do we “ungoogle” ourselves? I googled out some pretty good tips (sense the irony?… I use google to learn how to ungoogle…)
From Wikihow:
- Stop using your full name. The best way to “ungoogle” yourself is to not offer your full name or abbreviate your last name when signing up for online accounts, posting from your blog, or attaching yourself to any content that’s published on the Internet. You can also create an online pen name or a screen name to go by. In otherwords do not use something as obvious as arzhou like me.
- Google yourself to find out what other people are seeing when they search your name. If you have a common name, it’s possible that you’ll be buried in the search results with all the other “Sarah Smiths” or “Chris Johnsons” in the world. Don’t forget to search your name with quotation marks around it, as well as variations that include your middle name or initial. Its usually easier for us Asians where our names are a bit more unique compared to westerners.
- Make changes to the content that’s already been indexed by Google with your name on it. Change your name on public profiles that contain your name, such as blogs or social website accounts. Delete any accounts you might no longer use or might contain compromising or personal information. That’s why i make it a point to ONLY stick to facebook and linkedin. I usually do not sign up for other services, even then its under another name.
- Consider using the “robots” HTML meta tag in your content if you want to continue publishing information under your name but don’t want it appearing in Google search results: <meta name=”robots” value=”noindex,nofollow” /> This only applies if you have your own website and access to the underlying code, as it stops most search engines from indexing (cataloging) your page or following the links on it. The <meta> tag must go in the <head> section of a document in order to work. If you like, you can leave out the “nofollow” bit, which allows the search engines to follow the links, but not index the page. The reverse is also possible.
- E-mail the person responsible for a site that you don’t directly control and politely ask either to have the content removed or your name changed or obscured. Politely explain your situation, and don’t make empty threats about legal action. Just be nice and it shouldn’t be a problem.
- Bury the content you don’t want to be found by adding new content or moving existing websites higher up in search results for your name. Most Internet users don’t continue browsing past the first 50 search results, so join a mailing list that’s frequently indexed in Google or sign up for some websites that will eventually index your name.
A personal tip of mine, use Linkedin, it ranks pretty highly up on google search and its a social networking site for professionals, so get into it, use it, have your resume etc etc on it. That way usually the first thing most employers see is your blog and perhaps your linkedin profile.
Topics: Analysis and Views, Rants |
September 7th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Great post!
I’ve joined LinkedIn too!
September 7th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
But it take some time to get it remove from Google… Besides, you will still see traces of your name in Google after a few months..
September 8th, 2007 at 1:37 am
That reminds me why I’ve have chosen to remain anonymous in the Cyberspace. :p
September 8th, 2007 at 1:42 am
yup, that’s why prevention is better then cure. But you got to start somewhere right?