If you’re searching for yourself on Google, remember to enclose your name in quotation marks to make it a phrase search. The results you get will be more relevant, which means that I am really posting about you. For example:
Brian Nogglewill return a boatload of pages which could includeBrianSmith playing football against his high school’s nemesisNoggle. Werd, check it: Brian Moquist and Nathan Noggle (no relation) went to Baylor; Brian P. McCarthy and Roy Harris Noggle are AIA members in Arizona; and Brian Harvey wrote an article in which he quoted J. C. Noggle. All of these results are worthless, and could be winnowed from the search."Brian Noggle", on the other hand, narrows the search to people named Brian Noggle, but I’ve never, I swear, played on a Thursday Night League, participated in a cowboy jamboree, or attended high school this century. But if you Googled"Brian Noggle", you’d get all of these things as well as my Web tracks."Brian J. Noggle", on the other hand, poses a direct hit, as people from way back who’ve Googled me have undoubtedly discovered. I do write this blog, I did write white papers for MetaMatrix, wrote a skit for a theatre company I used to work with, got published in this magazine, and tried to convince myself and others that role-playing games offered good research potential for writers.
Just a thought for you fellows in the printed media who are Googling yourselves to see what people on the Web are saying about you. You know I mean you, Samus Aran naked.
