One's availability on Google, or their Google-ability, can be both an advantage as well as detrimental to his image. If one wants to provide information on the internet to promote himself, Google can be a very useful tool as the internet turns into a form or self-advertising. However, one can also be seen in a much worse light if people who may post negative articles about him or if any form of bad news appears on the search engine. Google-ability can thus be a great advantage, but only when it can be controlled by the very person it is affecting.
Friday, November 6, 2009
My Google-ability
When I first tried typing my name into Google, the only results were for doctors, race car drivers, and other professionals. I then tried adding the name of my home town, my current town, and the University of Michigan to the search, yet I still could not find myself. Most of the pictures that remained were of older men trying to advertise their profession. Only after I typed in the name of my high school after my name did any results come up, which included a group I belong to on Facebook and the links to a couple videos on Youtube. I was disappointed by my unavailability on the site but did not find such a problem to be much of the problem. However, in the future when online personal advertising becomes helpful towards my career, I would prefer people to be able to find me fairly easily online.
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While I agree that being easily available to employers online in the future is advantageous, I do not believe that Google is the best place for this availability. You could instead post your resume on a site designed exclusively for resumes to prevent other people from seeing your personal information. I agree with you that a great danger of being Googleable is the possibility of other people posting negative things about you. If that is the case, your reputation can be greatly effected in a negative way.
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