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September 17, 2007

Determine Your Online ID Quotient

This is a pretty interesting find. Answer a few questions, and William Arruda's Online Identity Calculator gives you a virtual identity score, on a scale of one to ten. I score a perfect 10 out of 10:

"You are digitally distinct. This is the nirvana of online identity. Keep up the good work, and remember that your Google results can change as fast as the weather in New England. So, regularly monitor your online identity."

This is good to know. I've been locked in a search engine battle with a highly-recruited football player from Ohio who decided to play at the University of Tennessee for the number one Ben Martin Google search result. Right now, I'm winning, but it's tough to get yourself into that top position when you don't have a distinct name like De Cagna, Rops, or Gammel.

One criticism of the calculator: It does not ask if you appear at all in the first page of Google results, or in the top five results, etc. In my opinion, being on that first page of Google results is essential to having a strong personal online identity. Even better to be above the fold.

Just a quick tip on improving your results. Hyperlink your name with the URL where you want Google users to find you, and ask people who blog or maintain websites to do the same. Like this: Ben Martin.

Tagged: ; ; ;

5 comments:

Ben Martin, CAE said...

Oh, it took me a second, but I got it jnott.

Matt Baehr said...

I am still bitter that a guy with a different name than me has the #1 result. See my earlier post on the topic.

At least you share the same name in your battle.

Go Vols.

Anonymous said...

Hey, but I share your pain a bit too. There is a James Notter who is a superintendent of schools in Florida that got in hot water around permitting (or not permitting) a charter school from teaching the Hebrew language. That gets hit in my google alerts all the time (but I think he goes by Jim)

Wes Trochlil said...

Everything is relative. You complain about not having "a distinct name." But how many times you've had to argue with someone about how your last name is spelled?

"Are there two 'ns' in Martin?"

wes, whose last name has two 'ls' NOT in a row...

Ben Martin, CAE said...

Heh, how could I have missed Trochlil in my example?