Google self-search/someone hijacking my name?

ATP · Feb 15, 2011

I have just done a search of my name on Google and found to my horror that someone else appears to have 'parked'/hijacked my name--the only difference is the one letter in spelling of our first names.It seriously affects search and related marketing.

I can't be sure what is going on. Examination of this suggests that in some cases, this might be legitimate, while in other cases it might be a site seemingly hijacking the name to encourage people to search that particular site. And it has changed from the data that used to come up, with the name with the same spelling.

This has never happened before, and maybe because I recently put material on Flickr? I feel like someone (or something) is riding shotgun on my name (even if his is very close).

Surely Google is capable of discriminating the differences between the two names? When I do a phrase search of each respective name, the problem disappears.

Could some person/s indicate to me what the nature of this problem is, or what it is called? Then I can begin to look around to try and go to the place to seek a solution.

Thanks

cryaegm · Feb 15, 2011

Are you positive that the person just might not have your name? I don't know if there's anything you can do about it. There's a lot of people out there who have similar names and both people come up on Google. If his name is spelled differently, then there shouldn't be a problem.

Then again, I don't know what you do.

How uncommon is your name?

CACTUSWENDY · Feb 15, 2011

There are several gals that have my name....and one is a stripper....lol

I don't know what to tell you. Best wishes.

thothguard51 · Feb 15, 2011

I think I know that girl....

benbradley · Feb 15, 2011

I've noticed Google does return results with alternate spellings of words, so I can see how searching for one person can show a result with a similar name. Other than that, it's hard to know what you're getting at, if someone is actually trying to do what you're saying, "hijacking" your name. I'd have to see it to know what you mean.

Deleted member 42 · Feb 15, 2011

I suspect that it's a matter of Google's algorithim trying to second-guess users.

If you Google someone with my last name (there are a lot of us) sometimes, but not always, Google wants to change the spelling to -burg instead of -berg.

I note as well that there are at least 3 people with my name.

AlexPiper · Feb 16, 2011

Keep in mind also that often when someone lets a domain lapse, a domain-parking service will snap it up (to grab ad traffic and suchnot) and then try to resell it. So it could be that someone had a similar name to yours, registered a domain (but used it only for e-mail or whatever, had no website or only a tiny one) and then when their domain lapsed a domain-parking marketer's registration bot caught it and registered it (thus changing the search results).

ATP · Feb 16, 2011

AlexPiper said:
Keep in mind also that often when someone lets a domain lapse, a domain-parking service will snap it up (to grab ad traffic and suchnot) and then try to resell it. So it could be that someone had a similar name to yours, registered a domain (but used it only for e-mail or whatever, had no website or only a tiny one) and then when their domain lapsed a domain-parking marketer's registration bot caught it and registered it (thus changing the search results).

This is a possibility. The only thing that I have done different is that
I attempted to point my domain name to my domain host's domain parking service. For a long time, my name had been indicating my friend's blog, and today I actually got around to learning how to make the change. I say "attempted", because the help centre (bot controlled I suspect) gave me instructions on how to do this, informing that this "propagation" process would take around 30 mins. Many hours later there is no change--maybe overnight? And...there's a good chance I may not have done the process properly.

Also, it doesn't appear that any of the others' domains have lapsed...

In any case, could this have had some influence on the situation that I have described in my OP?

Anne Lyle · Feb 16, 2011

I'm not entirely clear what the problem is, so let's look at some possibilities. I'm a web developer by trade, so I know whereof I speak

Let's say your name is Jon Smith, and when someone googles that they also come up with hits on John Smith.

1. These other hits link to entirely legitimate sites belonging to said Mr J Smith, or an unused domain called, e.g. www.johnsmith.info

- Nothing you can do about this. Sometimes people type names wrong, and Google is trying to be helpful. You can only hope that people looking for you pick the right site. It helps if the title of your home page says something useful, like "Jon Smith - Crime Writer"; other search engine optimisations will also help with your google ranking, as will linking to your site from any other site (like AW) that gets google-indexed.

2. These other hits link to sites that are pretending to be you.

- That is a genuine problem. You would have to approach the fake J Smith's ISP, I think.

If neither of these cases apply, perhaps you could explain more clearly?

veinglory · Feb 16, 2011

Unless your name is something like Crabpetunia Muffintop I would assume it has nothing to do with you but is someone else's lapsed domain.

Jamiekswriter · Feb 16, 2011

veinglory said:
Crabpetunia Muffintop

Dammit! ::scratching *another* pen name off my list::

Jamesaritchie · Feb 16, 2011

Try a search with your name in quotes. Alternate spellings may vanish, and even if not, you real name and site should be listed high.

I always search for people, be they writers or whoever, by putting the name, spelled correctly, in quotes. Hopefully, those looking for you do the same.

Polenth · Feb 16, 2011

Google appears to see more search terms as misspellings now. It recently started seeing Polenth as Pole North, so any page with the words pole and north are returned too. I still rank higher than pole north sites for my name search, but in blog search it's a real pain.

In your case, it may be those other sites have been there for ages, but the recent changes means it now sees them as the same thing.

Tirjasdyn · Feb 16, 2011

Pointing a domain name somewhere else can take up to 24 hours.

Is this person pretending to be you? If not there isn't anything you can do.

Otherwise...other people have your last name and first name. It happens. My name is one of the most popular in the US for my age group. It's the Beatles fault but I can't sue them for having a popular song.

Georganna Hancock · Feb 16, 2011

Parking and hijacking have to do with website domain names, not humans' names. In either case, if there is the slightest difference in your name and the one you suspect, Google is showing you the "other." And, as others have pointed out, your human name is not without duplicates; only a domain name is unique.

Which is it you're trying to understand -- results of a search on your name or your domain's name?

P.S. Many years ago when, probably it was Yahoo, search engines began functioning, my name returned a stripper in Florida. I had lived in Florida for seven years in the decade before Al Gore invented the Internet. Imagine my surprise!

ATP · Feb 16, 2011

Georganna Hancock said:
Parking and hijacking have to do with website domain names, not humans' names. In either case, if there is the slightest difference in your name and the one you suspect, Google is showing you the "other." And, as others have pointed out, your human name is not without duplicates; only a domain name is unique.

Which is it you're trying to understand -- results of a search on your name or your domain's name?

results of a search on my name.

Until I examine "the other" further, it appears that there's little I can do.
Once I solve the domain name parking problem--and the launch of the subsequent revised website--then the situation should, hopefully, be resolved. Searchers will find my site readily enough, but the relevant sites with my name tend to be lost amongst those of "the other/s"

Anne Lyle · Feb 16, 2011

ATP said:
results of a search on my name.

Until I examine "the other" further, it appears that there's little I can do.
Once I solve the domain name parking problem--and the launch of the subsequent revised website--then the situation should, hopefully, be resolved. Searchers will find my site readily enough, but the relevant sites with my name tend to be lost amongst those of "the other/s"

That's why you need to work on your Google ranking - ain't nothing you can do about other people's sites. There are lots of people out there who are keen to tell you how to optimise your site to improve search rankings (so-called SEO experts), but don't waste money on them.

1. Make sure all your pages have meaningful text in the <title> tag, since that's what's displayed in bold in the search results

2. Put relevant text content high up on your home page, so that the snippet displayed by Google helps searchers to identify your content as the stuff they're looking for.

3. Link back to your site everywhere you can - in comments on other people's blogs, in your signature on forums, and so on.

Hope this helps!

Stitch · Feb 17, 2011

Anne Lyle said:
2. Put relevant text content high up on your home page, so that the snippet displayed by Google helps searchers to identify your content as the stuff they're looking for.

Even better: use the meta description to describe the content on every page:

HTML:

<meta name = "description" content="Your description goes here,and will be displayed in the Google search result instead of a random snippet from your page." />

Stay away from "keywords". They can actually result in lower rankings because they are so often abused.

Anne Lyle said:
3. Link back to your site everywhere you can - in comments on other people's blogs, in your signature on forums, and so on.

More often than not, links in blog comments will not help your Google rankings. This is because most blog software, including Blogger, will insert rel="nofollow" into the link. This tells Google: "Don't follow this link from here, this website do not want to be connected with the linked website."

This is also because of abuse, such as leaving meaningless comments on a million blogs, just to spread your link around.

You should still include your link in your comments, if it is appropriate to do so, but it will not usually help your Google ranking.

Forum signatures are usually different, and regular blog posts and ordinary websites. Nothing beats getting a well respected, relevant, website to link to your website. This is why exchanging links with other websites on similar topics and themes is so powerful.

Anne Lyle · Feb 17, 2011

Stitch said:
More often than not, links in blog comments will not help your Google rankings. This is because most blog software, including Blogger, will insert rel="nofollow" into the link. This tells Google: "Don't follow this link from here, this website do not want to be connected with the linked website."

This is also because of abuse, such as leaving meaningless comments on a million blogs, just to spread your link around.

Good point - I delete spammy comments, but I guess the blog software is more conservative even than that.

Still, there's no harm putting your web address in anyway - someone might like your comment and click on the link to find out more

Stitch · Feb 17, 2011

Anne Lyle said:
Still, there's no harm putting your web address in anyway - someone might like your comment and click on the link to find out more

Absolutely!

Cyia · Feb 17, 2011

This reminds me of a woman who kept after the Admin of another site because she couldn't register for an account. When the Admin did some checking, she had to tell the woman that her screen name was already in use, so she couldn't use it to register. The woman came back with "But that's the name I use on every site, and yours won't let me register, so it can't be in use, yet."

Some people just don't get it.

Lillie · Feb 18, 2011

More than 2000 people have my real name.

I might as well be called 'Jane Doe'.

Tirjasdyn · Feb 18, 2011

Lillie said:
More than 2000 people have my real name.

I might as well be called 'Jane Doe'.

I know how you feel. I went to school with one with my name. I used to get mail of another but we had to open it to see who it belonged too because we had relatives in the same town sending us stuff with similar names. I belong to a facebook group of people with my name. Most of us who worry about a web presence use a middle initial.

cptwentworth · Feb 18, 2011

If I'm looking for anything exactly I always use quotation marks around the name or phrase, otherwise it goes off into probability land.

Matera the Mad · Feb 19, 2011

I once got a call at work from a collection agency -- they sure as heck had the wrong me because I never took out a student loan in my life. Other mes have done worse things. Not a whole lot of unique names out there. My Significant Hacker has the same name as a Canadian hockey player.

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