Good Google-y Moogly

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Today's New York Times Arts section has a first-person story on a woman's quest to remove or at least reduce an unflattering photo's ranking on Google. As vain as it sounds, 'Googling' your name periodically is a good idea if only to see what is publicly available on you. If you have a common name, refine the search with other keywords, such as your hometown, to narrow it down.

If what you find is flat-out wrong and libelous, there is a recourse. You can contact the search engine to report the abuse (the e-mail addresses constantly change intentionally) but it's an uphill battle. Just ask the woman who is suing Yahoo for $3 million after it failed to act on her request to remove nude photos posted by a creepy ex-boyfriend, who also provided her work phone number online.

Similarly, a few weeks ago I wrote about common but disturbing practices called 'pagejacking' and 'screenscraping.' If you or a friend have a Web site or blog, you might want to check it out to see what you can do to prevent people from ripping you off by stealing your content to boost their search engine rankings. In the business world, high rankings yield revenue.

Loosing Google's Lock on the Past [New York Times, reg. req.]
Woman Sues Yahoo Over Nude Photos [KATC]
Is your Web site atop the search pile? Better watch your back. [SearchSecurity.com]

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