h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My name is famous!


I'm even an MP in the Australian Parliament


Sadly, none of them are actually about me

autographs 50p each, 3 for £1

I'm 19th on Google's search for "gnomon".

they even got me pet bricks listedeh!

Yes, my name is famous, too. I'm baffled I got so many hits for my PS and photos, when there are so many photos of the Star Trek character out there.

How easy is fame......how unwanted...all we want is a free telephone...

fame and not a penny to me name

they're loss

Let's see if the name change has any effect. It's not as if people wouldn't recognise my any more, after all, it was mostly shortened to bel anyway.

B'El please

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&source=hp&q=b%27el&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&fp=b76f9d4ff9b8add9

your safe

Oh, I guess it will take a while for them to pick up on Bel.
I just hope nobody will search for that.

I'll hide you

gonna say good night all. sleep well as your time comes round

Bel, since "B'Elana" is a misspelling of the name of a Star Trek character, it's not that surprising that you came higher on the list than the Star Trek character.

I know that the real character is spelled with double n. I'm not sure it would really make difference in the search results, though. I could try to find out, I guess.

Goodnight Prof.

Yeah, you're probably overreacting a bit. I understand your concerns, especially when every internet-related media story is keen to bash Facebook/Twitter etc, but really there's nothing to fear.

For a start, there are a number of bots out there that just look for people to follow on Twitter. I had three new 'followers' from Flickr immediately after mentioning the site in a tweet, so it's not a phenomenon restricted to dodgy sites. It's a simple ruse - people (and for people you can read 'bots', 'automated programs', whatever) see that they're being followed, so they follow back. And when they follow back, adverts for penis enlargements or dating sites or drug prescriptions appear in their feed. It's rude, impolite and shouldn't happen, but it can't be stopped any more than I can stop the half a dozen people who phone me every day asking if they can upgrade our phone system because they find my number in the Yellow Pages. You can always block them if you're suspicious or irritated by them. And people do - a big pest control company in the UK has been criticised all over the place for its overly aggressive following strategy just this week. I digress.

However, it's always wise to believe that anything you put on the internet, anywhere, is publicly available and can be read by anyone - that's essentially what the whole internet thing is about, the easy spread of information.

The fact that you find only yourself on Google isn't surprising, either, and isn't related to your Twitter followers. I've only used the moniker 'Skankyrich' on a small number of websites, but I still fill the first two pages of Google and most of the next three with that term. Why? Because who else would write the word 'Skankyrich' on their page apart from me? The word itself is a word I created to identify myself with and, as Google only searches for instances of that word, it is hardly surprising that every use of it refers to me.

(Interestingly, when I search for my real name, I only appear once in the first six pages.)

The same applies to you. When you Google 'B'Elana', you're searching for yourself, and your results should be no surprise. There is only you to find. You have created that set of results by associating your pseudonym with those pages. Looking for 'B'Elanna' you don't appear for ten pages (I didn't bother looking further). The difference is that people aren't looking for you with this search term, they are looking for the Star Trek character, and so understandably you aren't being found because you aren't B'Elanna Torres.

So when we Google your pseudonym, we find you, and when we Google the Star Trek character, we find B'Elanna. You shouldn't worry when you find yourself top of Google, because not only are there only a tiny number of pages that contain your name - pages that you put your name to - but also because all of the pages on Google that don't mention you are excluded from the results, so you are *bound* to fill the first few pages.

Just wanted to put your mind at ease - good luck with the new name

I think I have locked my FB and Picasa stuff too, and limited it to the folks I know and trust. I had issues for a while, with a creep person stealing my photos, etc. Some people have no life and need to steal the lives of others, but it is still CREEPY.



I hope it never happens to you again, Bel.

Funnily enough, I don't have that problem with my name.

Do what you need to do to feel safe. It's just a name, after all.

Also -- isn't it appropriate for the minister of abbrev. to use a shortened version of her full name?

Or for the Minister of Abbr., even

I suppose I am fortunate with my moniker - it's impossible to find me!
and hello