I find this really interesting and it’s a strange phenomenon.
I know that companies out there “Google” (can you believe Google has become a verb? "to Google...") before hiring someone, you, me, anyone. It has become standard practice, or a background check and normally, I would have no problem with that since a great majority of the things that come up when I Google my own name seem to be put there by me or at least, relate back to me in some positive way, but I see this awful phenomenon occurring and it’s not new entirely and I’ve noticed it before and mentioned it, but here I am again because it’s important:
I found a few things about myself that I did not know. For one, I am featured, though this changes daily, on several erotic web sites, though I didn’t find myself, I did find my name used because I get a lot of hits and the way the site works is by using tags that get a lot of hits and key word searches and apparently, for whatever reason, a few or one large company has decided that my name is just weird enough (and I would agree with that) that its’ a good one to use to get traffic, or maybe just piss me off. I don’t know which. Though, i will say this has calmed down a lot lately so i didn't find any today, but it changes daily, which is another interesting thing about Google...
I also found myself linked with a private detective referral agency which makes some sense since I did some work for a PI or worked with him for a while and also, I’ve done some work with a federal agent regarding internet pornography, so this comes together but only sort of. This does help explain the numerous women who, I’m glad, write to me for advice regarding marriages in which one or the other partner is cheating and etc. Now I see why; I thought it was just the topic of my articles, but is see now that this is only part of the picture. That there is much more that I have left out.
I’m also very hooked up with Sadi Carnot but only because the name seems to coincide with Sadi as a first name a perhaps rue Ranson or something, who knows, but it’s all French and not really related to me (though certainly, some of the French stuff is, this particular is not).
My Bob Dylan work has seen my linked into a few really interesting places, but hey, I’m glad of it because it always drives traffic our way and that is never bad, but is interesting. I was surprised and happy to see I was at MickeyRoarkeOnline for my Masked and Anonymous review, which isn’t bad at all… so I’ll take that as a compliment.
Article comments
1 - alpha
Sadi, you rang the bell for emotional dislocations from the net by "Googling". I did it. And now I have to begin digesting the information and I was only up to page 24.
I knew there was another man of similar age with a name almost exactly mine - different middle initials but the same interests. I never knew my father (divorced) and this other me and I seem to share a lot even though he is first-rate, famous and I just enjoy my work.
Googling got me, by page 20, the fact that my father (I never met) died this year of a heart attack (mine was at 47) and the other man with my name is really a half brother. Wow! Try Google for an emotional kick in the stomach!
There is also another who invented a toilet tank intake valve.
And I found 5 of my photos on a site selling posters with no notice from my stock agencies. Maybe they just havent sold. Maybe it is time to more carefully protect each image on the net.
As I said, your article has led to Valium time. You hit quite a leak in the word's secrets.
If everyone Googles, then Yahoos and Jeeves themselves what skeletons there will be banging around cyberspace.
2 - Jared
I suppose it can be a benefit that a major league baseball pitcher of some note shares my name. I never thought of it that way before, but hey... Silver lining to every cloud and all that.
3 - uao
Jared-- Might be a bonus, might not. My real name is the same as a popular "Survivor" contestant, and I live in the same city. I started receiving fan mail every day. That was okay (I had fun answering it), but then I started getting phone calls at 3AM from weirdos.
By googling myslef, I found that some fan sites had morphed biographical elements of that guy with stuff about me they found on the web. In some cases, they printed my address after checking the white pages.
I kept hoping he'd win, and CBS would send me his $1000000 check (which would be made out to me, after all), but the bum got fired in the Big Brother room, or whatever happens on Survivor.
So then, I thought of how his dorky fans had put my address on the web, and how those schmoes woke me up in the middle of the night asking me "Duh, are you really him?"
Not worth it, sharing a name with a celeb. I liked it better when I had my name to myself.
4 - sade
see? it's interesting stuff, eh? sorry to hear about the heart attack business and all that, but some of your comments made me laugh quite a log "valium time" being one, whether in jest or not, is perfect.... Googling (or Google-ing?) is quite interesting. I google only Sadi Ranson because that is before my married name and gets the most hits, though i haven't yet tried w/ the Polizzotti. Should be interesting. Also, it changes every day... so check that out too... Google is so changable ... most search engines are. i find that fascinating... can someone explain that to me? please... i know it's all metatags and indexed, but why does the placement change from one day to hte next with no change from me, or is that someone else changed something; more, what of images in Google that from what i can see, bear no relation to me at all (yes, some are of me) but others... just plain weird. i suppose associative. interesting stuff though...
thanks as ever, for reading...
;)
sade
5 - sade
that's hilarious that you shared a name with the guy on survivor but not so funny for you ~ that sucks to get phone calls at 3 o clock on the morning and the morphing of bio detail would piss me off a lot... i hate it when they get regular info wrong about me and it's really me... how frustrating for you.
thanks for sharing that story though; it's interesting. maybe better to use an alias on the Web? Just a thought. Obviously too late for me..
6 - Temple Stark
Lots more could be said about Google encounters.
But, yeah, I've found my posts, my name attached to to very sick porn sites - just among a random list of links at the bottom.
Since it is obviously such a random list of worthies and not worthies I don't have much fear of an employer getting the wrong idea. But it is quite sick to see my name so close to some of this (and we're not talking "nice" porn here).
7 - sade
exactly: i wrote a whole article about this a while ago, and actually took a lot of flack for it from some idiots, but you know what, it's true and i worry about potential employers as well seeing that.
you'd like to think they are savvy enough to know this could happen to them too, but unless you are a writer or have a common or famous name, then i think it is unlikely to happen to most people. think about it ~ how many people get that many hits on Google or if they do, it's mostly geneology etc etc. so it's hard to say; i dunno. i can only speak from my own experience and have had the same.
i had my attorney send a "cease and desist" order to the porn company (in Florida of course) to immediately stop and they removed my name immediately. it was sick sick stuff as well -- i also turned the case over to the federal government... you can report it at www.fbi.gov and they WILL look into it for you.
keep your chins up, as my grandma would say.
sade
8 - Natalie Davis
I am not thrilled about this potential-employer Googling bit at all, but that's the way life goes. At least I share my name with some cool people, many of them also writers, including a noted political-science professor and a longtime cancer survivor (now deceased).
People should keep in mind at all times that there is no privacy -- anything you say, however harmless, however profane, however controversial or not, can be found and used against you. Meaning it is easier than ever for people to refuse to hire you based on, say, your sexual orientation, your political views, your religion or lack thereof, anything. And you may never know the reason why.
Welcome to the brave new world...
9 - sade
exactly, but i refuse to censor who i am because of that; that would be absurd, and to some extent i am more "careful" i suppose, yes, that sort of discrimination is wrong and more, it is actionable. i believe there will comea time when it will be illegal for potential employers and agencies to do this because of privacy issues; for instance, if someone is epileptic, has lupus, diabetic, handicapped etc. that could be used to discriminate as could as you say, sexual orientation, and it's just wrong ~ so you can't just put up with this. i'm glad so many people are writing in about this. perhaps this will help change the laws. start small, think big;
that's how you create change/ and yes, i believe that. call me an optimist.
cheers, and good comments.
sade
10 - elton jude aguiar
elton jude aguiar
11 - Phillip Winn
I believe I missed out on a job once because of search engines. I've had a weblog since 1995, and I interviewed for two positions at one company. One of the interviewers started asking me about politics using questions that made it clear to me that they already knew what my answers would be. I asked, and they confirmed that they had been reading my weblog since they found out my name. They seemed concerned that I would have trouble working with people with differing politics, and I was offered a position by the other department but not that one.
I can't be sure, but since my skillset fit that position better than the other one, I've got a really strong suspicion.
I didn't take the other position with the same company, either.
12 - Aaman
I thought political questions were not allowed in interviews, leastways we never ask them
13 - sadi
it's disturbing that bloggers should be "punished" in this way for their own thoughts, though i suppose once it's out there the only choice is to delete it, which seems hardly fair as well. doubtless i'v ehad the same trouble and i think or know from articles that everyone has had this problem to some degree.... you just have to keep trying and perhaps put out some content that they would like to see, i don't know ~ it seems too disingenous to do that. I feel i've had some of the same trouble and yet i'm proud of my home page etc etc. so....
i'm sorry this happened to you. truly. that sucks.
14 - sade
yeah, i didn't think political questions were allowed in interviews either... you might want to check your rights on that front.
15 - Phillip Winn
All sorts of things go on that "aren't allowed" all the time. This was nine years ago now, and I've moved on. Literally, since that was in Minneapolis and I'm in Dallas now.
It helped that I got an offer from another company that was better than the one from the other department of that company.
16 - sade
you're right about that. i've had some similar situations, where they asked health questions etc. which isn't allowed either, so i can empathize to be sure.