As I was watching live streaming via the Ustream.tv site of Robert Scoble, Chris Pirillo and Jeremiah Owyang, I saw a pattern of responses to the question, "Do you have a business card?"Â Many of the responses were the same, "just Google my name and you will find me."Â I heard this not only from the above named, but also in the background from people that were being interviewed or people introducing themselves.Â
A quick look at the names Googled indeed showed that "Chris" was the number one search result for Chris Pirillo, "Robert" showed that he too was the number one search result, and finally "Jeremiah" was not number one but was ranked on the first page of results.
How is this possible? It is a matter of the power of SEO and the power of how search works. The power of blogging has made them Google celebrities. These are not uncommon names, and in fact are pretty benign as I’m sure each of you know a Chris or a Robert. I myself checked my own name "Jim" and of course my campaign to be first on Google came up very short. Then I Googled my full name "Jim Turner", and lo and behold, I’m on page one here at One By One Media. I have not been blogging nearly as long as the bloggers I name above, but I’m well on my way to capturing the new way of passing out business cards. How about you? Do you rank high in your search engine of choice?
Tags: Ustream.tv, Robert Scoble, Chris Pirillo, Jeremiah Owyang, Business Cards, Google, Search Engines, Findability, One By One Media
I get beat out by that TV show!
[...] So if the blog is the resume, then Jim Turner’s analogy that folks are not handing out business cards as much because they tell folks to “Google my name“. [...]
My problem is that I’m competing with myself. I write for Download Squad and TV Squad, as well as my own personal blog. So while most of the first page results for Brad Linder are accurate, the easiest way to contact me is probably through my personal blog, which is towards the bottom of the list.
I found out recently that I’m the #1 human Tris on Google. TRIS is also a chemical buffer and some kind of transportation agency. Of course my full name works much better.
Interesting. Since I own “danyork.com”, I usually just point people there, but now that I think about it, I have at least once told someone to just google my name. I never tried a search on just my first name, though, until this post. “Dan” is way too generic and can also be an acronym, but Dan Gillmor’s blog did come in at #6, so he could conceivably say “Just Google for ‘Dan’”. If you do the more specific “Dan York”, you do wind up with 8 of the 10 links (and the top 5) being sites of mine. Never realized there was an IMDB database entry for my name… but that’s certainly NOT me!
Thanks for the post and the brief diversion into ego-surfing.
Are business cards on their way out?…
In the age of Google, perhaps they are: I saw a pattern of responses to the question, “Do you have a business card?” Many of the responses were the same, “just Google my name and you will find me.” So,……
[...] out there, but I’m sure they’re pissed at me for stealing their Google identity. Jim writes more about “Just Google my name” being the new business [...]
i love to name my google my name