Blog #4 - Jenny

Even before we were assigned this blog post, I had gotten in the regular habit of Googling myself. Coming close to the end of my college career, I have begun to think about ways to brand myself, especially online. I have begun this practice to see how I would appear if an employers searched for me. My idea for branding included starting a Twitter account, Facebook account, Blog, and LinkedIn profile. I haven't Googled in a while, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I pop up quite frequently upon searching for my name.

It surprises me that my LinkedIn profile is the first item to pop up, as it is one of my newest social networking sites that I've begun to use. Another thing that sparked my interest is that it shows two different usernames for me on Twitter. I used to be known as "jaenglert," but recently changed to "jennyenglert." I am curious as to why both usernames appear in the search.

In terms of branding myself, I would like to figure out how to get my blog moved up in the Google search results. Currently, it is the very last thing listed on the first page. Does anyone know how this is possible/if it is even possible? I would like to gain a better understanding of the order things are listed in when I search for myself.

Another thing that I found intriguing was how many different pages I was actually on. I showed up on the search results even five pages in. On page four I found something that was both interesting and displeasing. Listed there was a single tweet that I had later gone on to delete. I think the fact that it is still displaying in a Google search result page is a good reminder to be careful before publishing something online. I would have thought this tweet would not be visible to anyone else, and to my surprise, it is not only visible, but turning up in a search result.

After reading about this assignment, I was pretty excited. I remember Googling myself back in high school, and I think one measly article with my basketball stats popped up. I just assumed that with such a large search engine like Google, I would probably never show up on the first page. I am still surprised by the large web presence I have gained just four years later.