Thursday 10 April 2003 — This is over 21 years old. Be careful.
Jake Howlett wrote about self-googling (which he accurately describes as vain). Googling on his whole name, then his last name, and finally his first name, he was first, second, and 27th in the respective listings.
When I tried the same experiment, I was struck by how similar my results were: I’m the first Ned Batchelder, the second Batchelder (the first is actually a 404), and the 25th Ned. What does this mean about me and Jake? Or about blogs? Or about the web? Is this just a coincidence? What do other people get for similar queries?
Comments
The strange thing with Google is how often rankings change. I bet if I were to test it again it would be different just a few days later...
No big surprise: unusual last name + common first name.
No surprise I didn't rank with "Michael." Who isn't named "Michael" other than Simon, Jake and Ned? I think it definitely helps to have an unusual last name. It almost makes up for no one being able to spell or pronounce it correctly!
Another interesting thing to look at is, given your whole name (not quoted), how far down in the results do you have to look in order to find an entry that is *not* yours? For me, I finally found one at #72.
1.
Who knows.
Damn those Arthur Millers and Charles Schwabs.
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