mediajunk

The battle of the search engine giants is being fought in the news as much as in the technology sector. A month ago, Yahoo was making all the headlines, but in the last fortnight, it’s been nothing but Google, Google, Google. Amidst this flurry of news, PR and gossip, most industry analysts have missed a small but crucial event that, I believe, carries great portent for the future of the relationship between search engines and private individuals. In Southern California a few weeks ago, a man called Mark Maughan Googled himself (that is, he looked up his own name in Google) and was miffed at what he found -- false claims, apparently, about him and his company*. Maughan has initiated a lawsuit aiming to sue Google. He has little chance of winning, since Google is not responsible for the content that appears in the results. It seems that Maughan does not understand very well how search engines work. Then again, who among the general population does? And there’s the rub. As search engines, especially Google, are coming to have more and more importance in our society, how can people protect their identities online? I have been making this point for some years now, and long ago made sure that any search for Michael Heraghty or Heraghty will lead to results over which I have at least some control. (I have managed to secure the top positions for these searches.) I have done the same thing for many of my clients, a service I call “online identity management.” I believe that this service will become increasingly important in the future. On the internet, our reputations really do precede us. The growth of weblogs and social networking webs are indications that people are starting to create and manage their own virtual reputations, identities and “brands”. *Of course, a search for Mark Maughan now takes you to results that are predominantly related to the lawsuit story.