Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

Taking Control of Your Online Identity

Recently on Lifehacker and a couple of other sites that I read regularly they have been talking about your online identity.  Who you are when someone types your name in to a search engine.  I’m sure you’ve tried it, most people have done what has been referred to as “vanity Googling”.  While vanity, or some level of curiosity may be the motivating factor behind people searching their own name online, it actually is something everyone should try.  Why?  Simple, so that you can be aware of how you are being presented should someone search your name.  That someone could be a potential employer, client, date, or any number of other people you’ve come in contact with.  If you don’t know what the search engines reveal about you, you could be in for a nasty surprise.

To be prepared for writing this I went ahead and Googled myself.  It had been awhile and I was curious as to what I might find.  Under “Alex Schwartz” it took until page 22 to reach a reference that was actually to me and that was a link to Dan’s florn.net podcast.  Under Alexander Schwartz the first reference I hit was after a few pages, and that was a link to my Amazon profile and wish lists.  Nothing terribly damning there other than learning which X-Box games I long to play, and what books I want to get next.  Trust me, it’s not that interesting, take a look if you don’t believe me.  Googling me doesn’t reveal much of anything about me(yahoo and Bing both turn up next to nothing while searching my name). In some ways it’s a good thing because I don’t have to worry about people finding out things about me that could be damaging.  I’ve been pretty good about avoiding putting anything online that could be taken the wrong way.  By the same token sometimes not finding anything speaks volumes.  Are people going to wonder if I’m secretive?  Not very interesting?  Haven’t done anything with my life?  A luddite (well, okay, checking my Amazon wish list, or the fact that I run my own domain, disprove that theory in a hurry)?  Not even real?  It leaves a lot of room for people to speculate and just plain wonder.  Paranoid?  Maybe a touch, but let’s face it, online life has been, in many ways, merging with our real world lives.  People have lost a shot at a dream job simply due to a dumb comment, or inopportune picture posted to the web.  Just like at a face to face meeting, you want the first impression of your online identity to be a positive one. Continue reading…

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Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.

Google has been addressing users privacy concerns in regards to Google Buzz.  Not only have they worked to amp up the privacy settings (at least attempting to put them on par with rivals), they added an option that allows a user to completely remove Buzz from there account – taking with it any posts or updates that were made as well as removing that user from the list of anyone who might have added them in Buzz.  Kudos to Mountain View for taking the problem seriously and adding a way for people who have no interest in to to be removed completely.

From your GMail account you can go to settings.  Select the Buzz tab, then click on the link for “Disable Google Buzz”.  This will take you to a page to confirm that you really want to do it.  Once you confirm it, that’s it, it’s all gone.

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Buzz off!

So Google has unleashed its latest “we want to own all your data” demon in to the wild.  Google Buzz is Google embracing the social media madness.  It’s not terribly surprising that Google is entering this arena.  With the popularity of both Twitter and Facebook it’s hard to ignore to potential for generating a lot of traffic to your site (and by site I mean to the people who advertise on your site).  I know I’m not a fan of Google, and I don’t like the idea of them having huge amounts of my data.  While my few Twitter posts aren’t exactly private or important (same goes for anything I’ve ever put on Facebook), I like less watching one company becoming the soul gateway to all things internet.  No, they haven’t done anything where I can point to and say “See, they’re evil!”.  I don’t necessarily think they plan on doing something horrendous that violates the privacy of millions.  I’m more wary of the massive potential for them (or someone obtaining access to their systems) to essentially control the flow of a great amount of personal information.

While some I know have initially been favorable towards Buzz, I find myself looking at it in a different light.  Of course I have to admit that I am not much fun of “social media” or most of the things with the “Web 2.0″ label.  My involvement with them is mostly limited – checking and posting occasionally merely because a great many people I know use them frequently, and in some cases short of calling them is the only way I have to contact them.  With Twitter I never go to the website if I can avoid it.  It’s hideous, and has already had incidents of being compromised.  I use a Twitter client that is nice, uncluttered, and sits in the background until I’m bored enough to skim it.  Facebook, another site with history of compromises, seemingly changes their layout, privacy controls, and way you interact with it on a weekly basis.  I look at it once or twice a week, but damn I wish it’s popularity amongst the people I knew would wain.  All of this basically goes to say that Google Buzz, from the get go, is not likely to be my cup of tea.  It also should be pointed out that I haven’t touched it at all yet.  I’ve never liked webmail (I find it handy to have at some times), so I deal with all my e-mail via a client.  I can’t remember the last time I logged in to my GMail account via the web.  To be fair I probably should try it, but I’m not one to falsely claim that anything I write here is “Fair and Balanced”.  Generally it’s more “Biased and Obscene”.

Somehow what was meant to be a skeptical look at the idea of Google Buzz turned more in to a rant of my loathing of social media.  I like long rambling posts.  I like actually taking the time to read things.  The short form “thought bursts” or more colloquially “tweets” or “status updates” are fine and well but there is no substance and often times I find myself yearning for me.  Perhaps it’s my background in English literature, but I prefer substance to form, rambling to quips, and long diatribes to a simple pronouncement like: “Social Media Sucks”.

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