Solo Technology

Seen a lot of noise lately about ClaimID so spent a bit of time today just checking it out. Interesting service:

ClaimID is a service that lets you manage your online identity.

Imagine that you are applying for a job. You know that your prospective employer is going to search for your name online, and since you’re a rational person, that worries you. How will your employer know what online stuff is actually about you, and not about that other person who shares your name? And what if the good stuff about you online doesn’t mention your full name, or uses a name you no longer go by (such as a maiden name)? How would your prospective employer ever find it? Why do you have to lose out in the eyes of that employer? And the worst part is there’s no way for you to easily influence what search engines say about you.

Counter side to that: Suppose you’ve used the same ‘nym all over the place and you really only want some of it linked to you? That makes things a bit awkward, doesn’t it?

To continue:

ClaimID is a service that lets you claim the information that is about you online. That information is then associated with your name, providing folks an easy way to see what is and isn’t about you online. In doing so, you get to influence the search engines, and provide people more relevant information when they search for you. It’s time to reclaim some power back from the search engines. ClaimID is about letting you have some say in what search engines say about you.

So I claimed one of my more frequently used names: HandySolo. I’ve been using that, and variations of it, since back in the late 80s when I started my first BBS. Searching for myself was interesting… turns out I’m not the only one to ever use that nickname. Frankly, I was a little shocked. Always thought I was the only one. This might explain some odd emails I got a few years ago.

So now I have it setup. I pointed it at some of my “yep, that’s me” stuff. Now what do I do with it? Continue adding stuff? I have to figure out how to get the usenet stuff in there I suppose (really don’t want to do that post by post!).

PostBubble has a recent writeup on ClaimID as well. Worth a look.

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