6 ms·

Do You Google Yourself? Are You Hiring?

91 points by beniaminmincu 13y ago

JumpCrisscross 13y ago
Unless he has the ad executives' consent it was a bad move posting their full names in the video. Something I've noticed about mavericks (myself included, to a degree) is the willingness to engage is unusual/risky behaviour transcends the generally desirable (given that the "desirable" is classically the usual and proven). Arguing against myself, however, advertising is a fertile home for a maverick. Generalising the experiment, I'm now curious about soliciting executives for business via this method.
- tempestn 13y ago
  These people are essentially famous in their business; what's the harm of posting their names in a video?
jonboutelle 13y ago
This reminds me of the age-old (apocryphal?) trick of buying google ads geo-targeted at SandHill road in Palo Alto when you're raising VC money.
D9u 13y ago
I googled my name and found 57 others with the same name... None of those 57 names were mine though.
- conroy 13y ago
  It doesn't matter if you don't find yourself, as long as your search term (your name) matched. So as long as some one knows your name (and that you might Google yourself), there is a good chance you'd see it.
- ds9 13y ago
  Similar in my case. Were most of the 57 just blogs, Facebook/Linkedin, company pages etc.? You could gain similar ranking by putting something out there. It is a good position to be in control. Maybe add a middle intial to be distinctive.
grey-area 13y ago
Another cute trick is to put places on google maps at 0,0 or another strategic location, so that anyone looking at a place with that location will find it. Last I looked Ace Advertising Signs had put a place at 0,0, it's been removed now I think but you can still see the icon at certain zoom levels on classic maps as the tiles are cached: https://www.google.com/maps?q=0,0&ll=0,0&z=17&output=classic https://www.google.com/maps?q=0,0&ll=0,0&z=17&output=classic
flexd 13y ago
Over the years I've been sort of refining what you get when you search my name. So if you search for my name on either Google or DuckDuckGo now, the top 5-6 results are about me. It's mostly just Facebook/Twitter/GitHub/LinkedIn and other things like that, but they are all me. I guess that is positive when I'm finished with school and need to start applying for jobs :-) I'm not sure it will even pay off, it's not that you need to do that much, just try to get stuff you do not want to show up removed. Covering up something stupid (with any kind of spread) probably isn't going to work. But if you have a completely unrelated result showing up for a hobby of yours that doesn't really need to be on 'your' front page then you can make small edits to make it rank worse. Perhaps remove your name, or write it differently just that one time. Given a bit of time you can end up with only the results you want, provided you aren't known enough for someone to be writing about what you are doing with your life.
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  Silly questions: 1. What is your name ? 2. How do you remove unwanted results? 3. Are you tying all this into your own homepage?
  - flexd 13y ago
    My name is Kristoffer Berdal [1] You can't really remove unwanted results, unless they are something you have written yourself, but a lot of those are impossible to remove, most places you can't edit old posts. Besides, I do not think everyone should be held accountable for all the stupid things they wrote on the internet when they were 13 :-) You can create better results. The more positive results you have, the lower the unwanted things will rank. Things like projects, articles you have written and so on. If you can get enough of them ranking high then the unwanted stuff will be 'hidden'. As for tying it into my homepage [2]: I probably should but I haven't so far. It's far from what I want it to be, and mostly just a short introduction and links to my Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/GitHub. PS: I know the design is _very_ similiar to Mahdi Yusuf's [3] old design, while I didn't copy anything I feel bad it ended up looking so similar. I should give him credit somewhere since it's what inspired me to make it look much cleaner and minimal than it did before. [1] https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kristoffer%20berdal https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kristoffer%20ber... [2] http://cognitive.io http://cognitive.io [3] http://www.mahdiyusuf.com/ http://www.mahdiyusuf.com/
ankit84 13y ago
Over some 2 years back I tried this and it worked. I auctioned founder's name in Google Adwords and got call for interview in next 2 days. However, they did not offer the job :( Btw, that company itself earns most of the money by ads :P
mikevm 13y ago
I google myself all the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbk4Bvic5jA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbk4Bvic5jA
le205 13y ago
This also happens in reverse - recruitment agencies bidding on names of prospects. Certainly got my attention when I was first targeted by this approach.
consz 13y ago
My name is entirely unique, I've never found a reference to anyone else but myself when I google my own name. Thankfully, the references are relatively good/professional, but it's still a bit disconcerting.
Timothee 13y ago
I started to work at AdRoll a few months ago and it got me to think of different ways to use retargeting, while remembering about this story. For example, if you're looking for a job as a designer or an engineer (or whatever else), you're likely to have a site to show some of your projects. Potential recruiters that end up visiting your site can then be advertised to specifically. I was also thinking of blogs: you can probably recapture an audience when you write a new post. I.e. one of your posts gets popular on Hacker News, but people won't necessarily start following you or subscribing, but you could advertise for your new posts later. I'm surprised not to have heard of another story similar to that Google one since then, but there is potential if you think about it. edit: actually, I remember reading about a guy who had targeted his significant other using a Facebook ad for some purpose (maybe a proposal?).
- digitalboss 13y ago
  Congrats on the new job. Have you tried Geeklist https://geekli.st https://geekli.st ?
ds9 13y ago
I know the people reading this and posting here are, for the most part, particularly those who don't mind having their real info out on the web - but for anyone who cares about privacy or being tracked it's worth noting the info-exposure aspect of self-Googling. Google and other search engines, I would guess, have some algorithm that kicks in when someone searches on a person name, and calculates a probability that the searcher is the person whose name is searched on. This in turn may enable linking the real name with the set of data associated with the searcher by other means (e.g. hits on Google APIs, Google Analytics, etc., plus whatever other data the search engine has from other tracking and data-mining sources). Of course much of one's online profile may be already linked with one's RW identity, but the self-Googling may add some previously semi-anonymous data to the profile.
- cbr 13y ago
  If you're worried about this, use an incognito window to search for your name. Its a good idea anyway, because it turns off personalization.
mtrimpe 13y ago
A bit late to the party here, but if you want to help non-technical people manage their personal SEO, Brand Yourself [1] is a pretty cool startup that helps with this. [1] http://brandyourself.com/ http://brandyourself.com/

91 points by beniaminmincu 13y ago

Unless he has the ad executives' consent it was a bad move posting their full names in the video. Something I've noticed about mavericks (myself included, to a degree) is the willingness to engage is unusual/risky behaviour transcends the generally desirable (given that the "desirable" is classically the usual and proven). Arguing against myself, however, advertising is a fertile home for a maverick. Generalising the experiment, I'm now curious about soliciting executives for business via this method.

tempestn 13y ago
These people are essentially famous in their business; what's the harm of posting their names in a video?

jonboutelle 13y ago

This reminds me of the age-old (apocryphal?) trick of buying google ads geo-targeted at SandHill road in Palo Alto when you're raising VC money.

D9u 13y ago

I googled my name and found 57 others with the same name... None of those 57 names were mine though.

conroy 13y ago
It doesn't matter if you don't find yourself, as long as your search term (your name) matched. So as long as some one knows your name (and that you might Google yourself), there is a good chance you'd see it.
ds9 13y ago
Similar in my case. Were most of the 57 just blogs, Facebook/Linkedin, company pages etc.? You could gain similar ranking by putting something out there. It is a good position to be in control. Maybe add a middle intial to be distinctive.

grey-area 13y ago

Another cute trick is to put places on google maps at 0,0 or another strategic location, so that anyone looking at a place with that location will find it. Last I looked Ace Advertising Signs had put a place at 0,0, it's been removed now I think but you can still see the icon at certain zoom levels on classic maps as the tiles are cached: https://www.google.com/maps?q=0,0&ll=0,0&z=17&output=classic https://www.google.com/maps?q=0,0&ll=0,0&z=17&output=classic

flexd 13y ago

Over the years I've been sort of refining what you get when you search my name. So if you search for my name on either Google or DuckDuckGo now, the top 5-6 results are about me. It's mostly just Facebook/Twitter/GitHub/LinkedIn and other things like that, but they are all me. I guess that is positive when I'm finished with school and need to start applying for jobs :-) I'm not sure it will even pay off, it's not that you need to do that much, just try to get stuff you do not want to show up removed. Covering up something stupid (with any kind of spread) probably isn't going to work. But if you have a completely unrelated result showing up for a hobby of yours that doesn't really need to be on 'your' front page then you can make small edits to make it rank worse. Perhaps remove your name, or write it differently just that one time. Given a bit of time you can end up with only the results you want, provided you aren't known enough for someone to be writing about what you are doing with your life.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
Silly questions: 1. What is your name ? 2. How do you remove unwanted results? 3. Are you tying all this into your own homepage?
- flexd 13y ago
  My name is Kristoffer Berdal [1] You can't really remove unwanted results, unless they are something you have written yourself, but a lot of those are impossible to remove, most places you can't edit old posts. Besides, I do not think everyone should be held accountable for all the stupid things they wrote on the internet when they were 13 :-) You can create better results. The more positive results you have, the lower the unwanted things will rank. Things like projects, articles you have written and so on. If you can get enough of them ranking high then the unwanted stuff will be 'hidden'. As for tying it into my homepage [2]: I probably should but I haven't so far. It's far from what I want it to be, and mostly just a short introduction and links to my Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/GitHub. PS: I know the design is _very_ similiar to Mahdi Yusuf's [3] old design, while I didn't copy anything I feel bad it ended up looking so similar. I should give him credit somewhere since it's what inspired me to make it look much cleaner and minimal than it did before. [1] https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kristoffer%20berdal https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kristoffer%20ber... [2] http://cognitive.io http://cognitive.io [3] http://www.mahdiyusuf.com/ http://www.mahdiyusuf.com/

ankit84 13y ago

Over some 2 years back I tried this and it worked. I auctioned founder's name in Google Adwords and got call for interview in next 2 days. However, they did not offer the job :( Btw, that company itself earns most of the money by ads :P

mikevm 13y ago

I google myself all the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbk4Bvic5jA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbk4Bvic5jA

le205 13y ago

This also happens in reverse - recruitment agencies bidding on names of prospects. Certainly got my attention when I was first targeted by this approach.

consz 13y ago

My name is entirely unique, I've never found a reference to anyone else but myself when I google my own name. Thankfully, the references are relatively good/professional, but it's still a bit disconcerting.

Timothee 13y ago

I started to work at AdRoll a few months ago and it got me to think of different ways to use retargeting, while remembering about this story. For example, if you're looking for a job as a designer or an engineer (or whatever else), you're likely to have a site to show some of your projects. Potential recruiters that end up visiting your site can then be advertised to specifically. I was also thinking of blogs: you can probably recapture an audience when you write a new post. I.e. one of your posts gets popular on Hacker News, but people won't necessarily start following you or subscribing, but you could advertise for your new posts later. I'm surprised not to have heard of another story similar to that Google one since then, but there is potential if you think about it. edit: actually, I remember reading about a guy who had targeted his significant other using a Facebook ad for some purpose (maybe a proposal?).

digitalboss 13y ago
Congrats on the new job. Have you tried Geeklist https://geekli.st https://geekli.st ?

ds9 13y ago

I know the people reading this and posting here are, for the most part, particularly those who don't mind having their real info out on the web - but for anyone who cares about privacy or being tracked it's worth noting the info-exposure aspect of self-Googling. Google and other search engines, I would guess, have some algorithm that kicks in when someone searches on a person name, and calculates a probability that the searcher is the person whose name is searched on. This in turn may enable linking the real name with the set of data associated with the searcher by other means (e.g. hits on Google APIs, Google Analytics, etc., plus whatever other data the search engine has from other tracking and data-mining sources). Of course much of one's online profile may be already linked with one's RW identity, but the self-Googling may add some previously semi-anonymous data to the profile.

cbr 13y ago
If you're worried about this, use an incognito window to search for your name. Its a good idea anyway, because it turns off personalization.

mtrimpe 13y ago

A bit late to the party here, but if you want to help non-technical people manage their personal SEO, Brand Yourself [1] is a pretty cool startup that helps with this. [1] http://brandyourself.com/ http://brandyourself.com/