DISQUS

Technology Liberation Front: ClaimMyName: Self-Help Against Name-Squatting on Social Media Services

  • Jayel Aheram · 4 months ago
    The only problem with claiming names on any of these services iis that merely claiming them is not enough.

    Unless you keep track of them and update the profiles accordingly, you will end up with a lot of dead-ends when someone searches for you on Google or any search engine. On one hand, you get to claim your unique name. On the other hand, you have a lot of blank profiles that do not tell much about you and will register in search engines. It just creates noise.

    I am having a hard time as it is keeping track of and updating a small number (18 ) of social networks (making sure profile information is accurate, links bank to http://aheram.com, making sure there is nothing on there that you do not want), adding 282 more to that list will just break me!
  • eee_eff · 4 months ago
    The value of this varies greatly from person to person; see http://howmanyofme.com. According to that site there is only one of me, so who would sit on that name? No if you are John Smith....

    I had read a story that indicated that soon-to-be-parents were actually picking out names so their future children would be unique when "googled" That seems silly--by the time these children are grown up the likelihood of the net being the same seem remote indeed.
  • Berin Szoka · 4 months ago
    Clearly, my parents were thinking ahead!

    Your point is a fair one, EF. Apparently, there are a mere 172 Szokas in the U.S.!

    But yes, many of my friends having kids are, indeed, deliberately picking out unique names because of the Internet era. I suspect that trend with accelerate as more couples hyphenate or even amalgamate their names--thus creating a much more diverse mix of last names. For example, a friend of mine, formerly Bobby Smith, is now Bobby Smithney, having married one Ms. Courtney.
  • yiid.com · 2 months ago
    It seems to be a great service, but it isn't to expensive ?

    Regards
    Marco