A recent post on SimpleHelp titled “How to reclaim your name online” could be more accurately called “How not to approach online identity.” A few days later, Mashable followed up with 20 Ways To Aggregate Your Social Networking Profiles, which is a great resource but, again, not a way to approach managing your online identity.
First, both SimpleHelp and Mashable leave out one of the best resources for online identity, claimID. I’ve written about them before, but will repeat that it provides the simplest interface and the best features for describing who you are and who you aren’t. It also uses OpenID and microID (for verification). After I signed up at claimID, it showed up at number four in a Google search on my name.
I don’t fault Mashable for providing a list of sites that aggregate your online life, but it should be pointed out that signing up for yet another account to aggregate your other accounts is not a solution in itself, especially if it doesn’t provide a higher level service such as OpenID.
The single best thing you can do to manage your accounts and identity is to create your own blog. Use Vox, Wordpress, or Blogger as your foundation. You don’t have to worry about writing something but at least provide an updated post occasionally to reflect changes in your online life. You can use free tools to integrate photos, bookmarks, videos, etc. into your blog so it becomes a central spot containing all your stuff.
If you don’t like what you see when you search your name on Google, it’s too late for a cover-up. The better bet is to start creating content that you want to see connected with your name and use claimID to manage it.
I’m going to check out claimID later tonight and sign up. I’ll update the Simplehelp article w/ the info (crediting you as source of course) if it’s solid.
FYI - ziki overtook my ‘blog’ (simplehelp) when searching for my name just a few days after I signed up, and SH has been around for a year.. So I’m not 100% sold on the idea of starting a blog as being the best way to get your name to the top of search rankings. Especially since Yahoo and MSN (by and large) ignore blogs in search results, unless you specifically tell them you want to perform a blog search.
July 19th, 2007, at 3:11 pm #I took a deeper look at Ziki, but it was taking forever to load and had some bad grammar/spelling problems on some pages, which lessened my trust of it.
Primarily, I think some of these name/profile services are only useful if you have already created content somewhere and are looking to differentiate yourself from others with the same name.
I’m fortunate in having a unique name, but when I used Ziki to search my name, it seemed less effective than Google.
I agree with your point about Yahoo and MSN but realize Google is still dominate in the search field.
July 19th, 2007, at 3:36 pm #OK, perhaps I’m a little paranoid about my security, but why would I want to be searchable on the internet? If people know me in the real world, I can tell them where I am online. If I meet someone online I want to be able to control whether they know who I am RT or not…
July 20th, 2007, at 2:58 am #Given that employers are searching out prospective employee’s online blogs, I want to be damn sure I don’t blow my chances of that dream job by a mis-interpreted posting somewhere!
You either continue being paranoid or you embrace the web as a communication tool that you use to discuss your interests and passions. I know people who have gotten their dream jobs because of what they write on their blogs.
July 20th, 2007, at 12:57 pm #