Companies, businesses, organizations and governments spend millions (perhaps even billions) of dollars trying to ensure that you can find them on search engines (namely Google). The whole idea of being searchable (def. ability to be found) has created a new industry of professionals specializing in search engine optimization. Now I have my reservations about the tactics and strategies used but as long as a good informative webpage that is useful to people can be found, then I am satisfied. Nevertheless the battle to be at the top of the search engine results remains a controversial matter to me.
But are you Googleable?
The matter of being able to be found is important not only to organizations, but to individuals now. I’ve long advocated to my friends to ensure that they can be found on the Internet only to be ignored. The argument typically being — “I want my privacy and it seems creepy that people can find me.”
True — the era of search engines (notably Google of course) has created a new way for employers to find out about potential candidates before hiring them. This of course can seem both good and bad but to people who complain about privacy and then turn around and have a personal blog and photos available for public access — have you forgotten that the Internet is a public space?
Keeping in mind that the Internet is a public space, it is vital for everyone to make claim to their online identity. Claim it and define it as you wish, but keep in mind that it is important to draw the line between private and public.
Chad Sapieha wrote a great piece for the Globe and Mail about one’s Google Reputation and employment prospects. It doesn’t only stop with Google, there’s that whole social media realm too so take control of your online identity and shape it appropriately.
After all, you are marketing yourself 
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The Globe and Mail has an article today about Last.fm now offering music on-demand with advertising. It’s good to see that the music industry isn’t totally ruling out internet radio, although this is slightly different.
I still miss listening to music on my Pandora account — while Last.fm allows me to find songs based on similar interests among other users, Pandora was really easy to use and was customized for me and only me. I hope that Canada can get back in on that action soon. I miss being able to find new artists or artists a just had not heard of before, without the “word of mouth” step. Sometimes “word of mouth” can be a pain…
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Rarely do we have the opportunity to have a glimpse into the past. One of the eras that I am fascinated by — the Great Depression of the 1930s — is one that continues to peak my interest over and over again ever since I was a high school student.
I ran across the news at TechCrunch today that Flickr was working with the American Library of Congress to share colour photographs taken during that area. This initiative is through The Commons program. There are a wide variety of photographs to check out and I highly recommend browsing through all of them. I’m still going through them right now!
I can’t say that I usually support Flickr but the project that they are working on with the Library of Congress is definitely worthwhile and truly makes history(I’m a history major) that much more accessible to the world. And it’s not a bad thing to be able to look back at the challenges, failures, and accomplishments of fellow human beings.
Take a look!
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Well, I can’t use Pandora anymore ever since the copyright enthusiasts ensured that internet music radio stations weren’t able to broadcast beyond the United States. Really a shame.
My alternative now?
Last.fm — but it’s okay, I still enjoy Pandora more.
I ran across something new today that is more of a search engine for music called Songza. Unfortunately it doesn’t recommend music to you but something good about it is that you can search for whatever song you may happen to be in the mood for.
I only wish that I could purchase a track through Songza rather than merely an album which is listed through Google Products.
Check it out!
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Happy 2008!
I’ve been tied up with a lot of issues at work and I’ve been working on a new website (i’ll speak about it later) lately so I haven’t had much time to blog.
Nevertheless … I am happy to hear that GM has picked up on blogging with a site called GM Next and powered by Wordpress too! I’ve always enjoyed checking out Dell’s Ideastorm and watching what features they end up implementing in their products so I am interested in seeing how GM will interact with the ideas or suggestions that users will provide.
Just as a note: I really like the photo on the GM Next site. But that’s just the photographer in me speaking.
I also noticed that Publishers Weekly posted 15 Trends To Watch for 2008. Sorry folks, but if you are merely watching then you’ll be left behind in the dust. Publishers should have seen these trends early last year if not earlier. Particularly with #4 although not necessarily “acquiring websites”. It would be more like signing a contract with a blogger to create a book of a particular value–think of Seth Godin’s books.
Of all of the trends listed, I can understand that the whole ebook transition will be painful for many publishing houses because the production process is for the most part out-of-date and PDFs are no longer considered as highly valued as they were before. Nowadays, XML is the key term for the future. Unfortunately the investment required for XML is massive and the return for ebooks has yet to truly solidify.
For designers, I think ebooks will force a revolution — not in terms of design itself, but the technical and workflow process. Unfortunately designers and production artists will be required to learn how to convert those production files into XML.
Thank goodness for Quark and InDesign eh?
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