Friday, March 10, 2006

KING VINESH XXXII

I used to think that I have a rare name - Vinesh (but for a few wine shops). Sometime back, a good soul by name Venesh Selva wrote to me expressing his surprise at finding "another Vinesh".

Today I googled my name, and found Vineshs with surnames ranging from Chandra, Nair, Gandhi, Raja, Iyer, Sukumar, Nambiar, Raja, Saxena, George, Gupta, to Chintaram, Jairath, Motwani, Vasnani, Winodan, Jadavji, and Hookoomsing!!!

And where was my name on the list? It showed up as the 32nd search result on Google! So much for illusions of uniqueness!

There is actually a word that refers to the act of using search engines to seek references to one's own website, or to view webpages that mention one's own name: ego surfing. Just when I thought that my narcissism was on record, came across this very interesting article about this communications professor calling self googling a shrewd form of personal brand management. Click here to read article.

The professor says, "Given that everyone from potential employers to potential mates is likely to be googling you, you should have a good idea of what they will find", adds, "whatever you say on the Web can come back and haunt you", hence, "it's important to actively put your best foot forward on the Web".

Hmm...with the kind of trouble that I'm known to get into, shouldn't Orange Juice exist then, I wonder.

24 comments:

Jeevan said...

When i search my name in google. i found there is a TV channel in my name. www.jeevan.tv

daydreamer said...

Hi vinesh,

very happy to know that goundamani is your spiritual guru. that really made me laugh. am an ardent fan of gounds, senths and vadivels..vivek is ok but vadivelu rules... just started blogging, will go thru ur previous blogs too. Humor in wierdest situations. . i really like this. and it is so difficult to control laughter in such situations... face will turn red and some vague sputters noises will happen oh.. been thru that a lot of times....

Unknown said...

Try Googlism.com for funnier results :)

kuttichuvaru said...

ya i hav tried "ego surfing" b4.... its fun u knw!!

Random Access said...

Actually, I am the only person with my name.... I mean my actual name... atleast in Google...

Random Access
The search has just begun !!!

Ramya Shankar said...

I'm sure there are helluva a more Ramya's ! I can already imagine the number of pages of results google will throw at me... cha!

Usha said...

Interesting. But I don't think we need to worry about what the search will throw up because who else is going to make a search on our names excepts ourselves! appadiye thappa yaravadu try pannaitalum oru dadavai nammalai pathi padichutta apram inda search vambukellam vara maatanga enna solreenga..nalla idea thaane?

ada-paavi!!!! said...

thankfully there are loads of ppl with my name,

and employers even if they are going to be googling for ur name arent gonna give it too much thought if u manage to work well.

ada-paavi!!!! said...

and i havent gotten into trouble for the stuff ive written, seuclar politicians in india shud be after me, so u shudnt have a problem

samania saman said...

my friend once got into trouble over a pic of a cow grazing in a railway station...

Scoot said...

that's so much more orange juice to think about.

anup.777 said...

lolz @(but for a few wine shops) :)

Well, I tried AnupR and found my blog listed at no.10. Yaah! :)

Of course Anup is such a common name that if I tried only Anup, I would've been listed 420th :)

Nice place u've got here buddy ... I'll keep dropping by for more servings of Orange Juice ... C Ya!

sai thilak said...

Google results la entha position vanthom nu mukiyam illa, etha kilichitu vanthom nu tha mukkiyum. Nee inga nalla thaan kilikira.... :)

Mr G said...

well, I suppose we'll just have to behave (just in case)
;)

Thanks for dropping by my site! :)

Speech is Golden said...

Thanks for ur comments on my site. I dunno how u got to it (it is so secret that only few brave n daring souls have managed to reach it till date). Anywayz join the club.

As for illusions of uniqueness, mine was shattered long back when I tried finding a suitable name for a yahoo account

Karthik Ram

Anonymous said...

Check out some of the stuff that 'googlisming' threw up for me:

runa is out of print and no longer available.
runa is confusing.
runa is black and tan.
runa is part of nature and lives harmoniously with each one of the components in a reciprocal and equitable relationship.
runa is the air it breathes. (what's "it"?)

and my personal favourite:

runa is destined to be the next sacrifice.

I knew I had a higher purpose !!

Vinesh said...

@Jeevan: Ada, you must be the next Kalanidhi Maran :-D

@Daydreamer: Hey, thanks for dropping by :-) Good to know of ur interest in comedies too :-)

@Jayan: Hahahahaha! Some totally wacko results I got there!! :-D

@Kuttichuvaru: :-)

@Random Access: Haha, so you are now Specific Access! :-)

@Ramya: RAmya-va! Naa indha paera idhukku munnaadi kaettadhe illeye??? :-D

Vinesh said...

@Usha: But the global trend has begun to indicate that we are being googled by people other than ourselves! :-(

@Ada-paavi: Hmm, I have gotten into soup with folks, right from college to political goons for stuff done in jest. Made me even give up blogging for a while. But yes, I don't think search results must be taken seriously by job employers.

@Surgeon: I'm very curious!! How/why did that happen??

@Maya Cassis: :-)

@Anup: I haven't seen much of this spelling of your name though (more of Anoop) :-)

Vinesh said...

@Sai Thilak: Hahhahhahahhahha! Aduththa Simbhu ready! :-D

@mrgonsings: :-)

@Speech is Golden: Must have stumbled my way somehow into your blog. But cosy little nook, I must say! :-)

@Runa: I unearthed more sensational stuff about you through googlism too :-B hehehe!

யாத்ரீகன் said...

657,000 Worldlevel results
72,000 Indianlevel results

Not only in google, but so common is my name :-( yet, each time i find someone or the other giving it a new pronouncation & ispelling... :-)

and One interesting was.. All 22 results for my Punai Peyar for my blog was Only about me and my blog :-)))

Jo said...

I heard the name "Vi-nesh" before. I hope yours is not "vine-sh". ;-) (just kidding mate)

Random Access said...

Only that the specific access leads to not so nice specifications about me... :P

Random Access
The search has just begun !!!

smiley said...

You should goto these name fortune changers who come in TV and change your name for a better life. They might add a "a" or "z" or "y"...
That will make your name unique plus you get a raja's life when they change it :)

Unknown said...

Well, heres one of them you may have found on the Internet - the Vinesh with the Nair...of course a tad older than you folks...welcome aboard my friend and sail along!

www.vineshnair.com