Red Coats For Everybody – Search Engine Identity

We haven’t covered much red-coat, black-coat stuff recently (even though that Justin.TV did warrant a comment (we just didn’t have the time)) but here’s something from Publishing 2.0 by Scott Karp where analyzes a piece from the WSJ on Google and Identity and says:

The problem for most people is that they don’t have a platform for influencing their identity in Google or other search engines. Anyone can start a blog, sure, but that may not help if your name is John Smith, or even a less common name if you don’t get any inbound links.

It’s striking how complete Google’s dominance is in the realm of search-driven identity. I get traffic from Yahoo Search and Live Search, but never navigational or identity traffic, i.e. people searching for “Scott Karp” or “Publishing 2.0″ in order to find my blog or find out more about.

It will be interesting to see whether pieces like the one in the WSJ will intensify the interest in Google identity management and in services and platforms for such management. There are few professions or careers that couldn’t benefit from effective Google identity management.

Google Controls Your Identity » Publishing 2.0: