I can attest to being contacted by old high school acquaintances who have wandered onto my website. A Google search for my full name will put my web site as the first result, and my e-mail is right at the top of the page, so it’s easy for people to get in touch.

Reversing that, in the past I have tried to search for people I haven’t talked to in years, but it seems I rarely find anything. Sometimes I find them at Facebook (and behind the registration wall), or on a shitty MySpace page (well, that’s redundant).

Craig – when I google for “Craig A. Betts” the first hit seems to be your twitter. :)

I just realized something… It probably sucks to be named “John Smith”. If you are, chances of finding yourself on Google are probably slim to none, unless you really have a good page rank.

I’m a complete google-ghost
If you put my name in in quotes then you get 680 hits, but none of them are me

Actually there may be one from a school I used to go to, but I’m not completely sure – some friends and me tried this a while back and I can’t remember if it was me or one of the others who found themself that way.

I am relieved . . . I googled “Craig A. Betts” (using the quotes) and got the whole page.

My e-ego is quite happy now. :-)

LOL! I did a google on “Craig Betts”, and this first hit (third on the list) that was actually me was on your web site!

Good point. I think privacy is the paramount issue here. But just having an email doesn’t alow you to re-connect with old childhood friends, former students and etc.

If I don’t know your email address there is no way for me to contact you. But if you do have a Myspace/ Facebook account, or a personal website there is a chance I could look you up just by your name.

Or say we met randomly at some party. I don’t know your name, but we shared common interests. Now I could ask around other people who were at the party about you, but unless you are a pretty girl, I probably wouldn’t care enough.

But if you are on some social network, the chances are you might be on the “friends” list of someone I know. This way I could easily locate you and drop you a note. And etc…

Privacy is definitely a major, major concern. But then again, you are always the person who controls how much private info about you exists online.

Sorry. By “I googlable online presence…” I meant “A googlable online presence…”.

I disagree. I googlable online presence is not that important if you have a online presence with a instant messenger or e-mail.

Of course that way you would need to be proactive towards your friends and family not to loose contact but would be still accessible online all the time.

I avoid specially the social networks because there you are sharing too many private stuff (photos, friends, notes, opinions, habits, etc.) most of the time without knowing that it could be a valuable information to someone with bad intentions.