Over these few weeks, I have learnt so much about the importance of keeping a clean record on the internet.
I learnt that internet memory is permanent. You cannot wipe bad things about you from the net. They will forever remain a liability to your image, your political party and even your country.
If you don’t hire a good webmaster who is skilled in googlewashing and expert in search engine optimisation, you might as well take those thousands of dollars used to build your website and throw it into the sea. Some poor fisherman may find a few notes floating in the sea. Some big fishes may accidentally swallow the notes and some poor, hungry kids may catch the fish and find the money. But spending a lot of money without SEO is sheer waste of money.
This is what happened to one famous son-in-law. He recently has an impressive looking (by some people’s standard, not mine) website which is to showcase what a marvellous man he is. It took me just a few minutes to hit first page when people search for his site. Of course, I didn’t link the site but I gave the URL without html.
Then, there is the father-in-law website. I also hit #2 after the original site. I have my reason for doing what I did. I strongly feel that those are our taxpayers money used to build the site. I don’t see why the citizens have to be led to believe those ‘things’. I probably am a little, naughty devil who want to test her SEO skill and also her political wickedness. Whatever it is, I did it because I feel compelled to.
As for the image factor, I am so amused that the son-in-law real site seems buried in the SERPs but he has tonnes of bad vibes from a lot of blogs, websites and forums. So, you see, you cannot escape once your bad deeds are inked online.
Meanwhile, good guys like our new Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has a long list of his heroic acts of helping the down-troddens listed on the net.
With the internet and digital age, you cannot run, you cannot hide. It is almost like almighty God watching you.
6 thoughts on “Watch your past if you intend to become famous one day”
pablopabla
(March 11, 2008 - 10:04 am)The good guys will send petition to Google God to spank the bad guys ;)
Number Plates
(March 12, 2008 - 12:10 am)It’s true, and I think it could be very embarrasing if I one day became famous, and someone pulled something I said on a blog or forum off the waybackmachine. I think a lot of things that people have written in the heat of the moment during a flame war could come back to haunt them!
Unto the grave your past haunt you | Make$ Money$ Blog - Truth, no scam
(March 12, 2008 - 1:28 am)[…] is freaky. Just last night, I wrote about “Watch your past if you intend to become famous one day” and someone actually died around that […]
Dee
(March 12, 2008 - 2:43 am)Hey Lilian there is no pic in your about author page. Hiding from google. Nope I read more about you in the ABOUT page. Was just kidding. good reminder of what not to do on the net.
David
(March 13, 2008 - 4:54 pm)Sometimes I would read the newspaper about some mugger in his twenties being caught and the paper would give out his full name but not a picture. I would then go on Myspace to search for the mugger’s profile and more times than not, I would find his profile and photos on Myspace.
JayStar
(June 17, 2008 - 11:26 pm)[..]so true especially these days with the ubiquitous social web 2.0 scene so integrated into our society.. how many people would find it amusing to find that not so glamorous looking picture of you at last years Christmas party looking a little under the alcoholic weather… see how that impacts your notoriety and money earning potential..
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