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Title: Bummed about your Google image? Get over it
Source:
Seattle PI
URL Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/226913_googleblues03.html
Published: Jun 3, 2005
Author: STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Post Date: 2005-06-03 12:49:22 by Mr Nuke Buzzcut
Keywords: Bummed, Google, image?
Views: 3
Bummed about your Google image? Get over it By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM The only thing more unfortunate than the photo is that nearly a decade after it was taken -- a decade in which I became a blonde and graduated to stilettos -- it is still the definitive image of me on the World Wide Web. It's the one that pops up every time my name is entered in a Google search. It even has the dubious distinction of being in the top 10 hits in a list of several hundred sites that include my name, most of them containing articles I have written. The photo caption says that, as the show's director, I was working "behind the scenes." I beg to differ. I am center stage in cyberspace. Nevermind that the photo accompanies an article about my theatrical achievements. If a prospective date were to encounter the virtual me, he would not be moved to schedule aperitifs. But if misery loves company, then there is solace in knowing that many people bristle at the mere thought of being Googled because of the photos, news clippings or blog entries they believe do not reflect who they are. Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products for Google, said people call and e-mail the company regularly to request that links to their names be removed. Webmasters who want to remove their content from cyberspace are directed to Google, where they can learn how. But people like me, who do not own the offending material, must contact a webmaster directly. "We have no way of identifying it's you," Mayer said. "We can't just take down a webmaster's content based on a request we can't authenticate." Requests to wipe the cyberslate clean generally stem from a desire to delete the past. After all, how do you reinvent yourself when the old you is but a mouse click away? The answer, as savvy Web users know, is to electronically shape and edit your online self. But first, give up the quest to erase unflattering content. It's almost impossible. "The Web is the worst place to try to take control of something," said Larry Weber, the chief executive of W2 Group Inc., a marketing services company that builds and manages online identities and brands for businesses. "You'll drive yourself crazy trying to get things deleted." That's because Web sites may publish what they choose as long as it's not libelous or otherwise a violation of law. John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, said that as a rule, "If it's damaging but it's accurate, it's not actionable." Trying to prove that information is false can be a costly and lengthy process. Last week Cecilia Barnes, who lives in Portland, filed suit against Yahoo for $3 million, charging that the company had not removed nude photos of her from the Web, as it had promised it would. Barnes' suit claims that an ex-boyfriend posted the pictures, her e-mail address and her work phone number without permission. Yahoo did not return a call seeking comment about the lawsuit. Rather than trying to have uncharitable comments and images removed from the Web, Weber said, people should go with the flow of the Internet. "Go in and be part of the community," he said, "and share and be transparent and be open." Gentry L. Akens II, a TV and film producer in Orlando, Fla., is trying to do just that, after being baffled by a Google search of his name. "Some of the things that I want to pop up, I don't find," Akens said. These include his work as a production designer and an art director for the Nickelodeon shows "Gullah Gullah Island" and "Taina," and for "The Mickey Mouse Club." He recently took matters into his own hands by paying to be part of the Internet Movie Database, a listing of film and television credits. Two days after he posted his credentials on the site, his listing was beginning to appear among the first links to his name. He also is setting up his own Web site. Akens has the right idea, experts say. The most effective way to define and control your digital persona is to start a blog or put up a home page. "Web logs come up very high in a Google search," Palfrey of Harvard said. "By creating a personal Web page, particularly one that has lots of links to lots of sources, you can create a gateway to your online identity."
THE NEW YORK TIMES 
In the winter of 1996 -- back when I was a brunette who wore sensible shoes -- a photographer snapped my picture during a rehearsal for a college musical. The production mattered; eating and sleeping did not. The resulting portrait showed a pasty, gaunt girl being swallowed by a XXX-large T-shirt.
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