Monday, August 25, 2008

Reflections, mid-publish

The Google Twin article has done its thing in print nationally (meaning all-but-Toronto), online (meaning, you know, here), and will be put into ink for Toronto next Saturday.

And that means things are afoot!

As I had anticipated, there is fresh controversy over the validity of my Wikipedia listing. As I am now learning for another article on what makes a person wiki-worthy, there are certain guidelines of "notability" that a person has to have if their Wikipedia entry is to stay up.

I knew I would probably fly under the radar until the article went to print, and, as I suspected, I was sitting pretty until it went online/in the paper on Saturday. Now it has been flagged as not having enough documentation to prove my already questionable notability, but the kind and helpful Alan K'necht is helping to sort that out (without my even asking! He is a wonderful soul!), as am I. He was also kind enough to mention the whole ordeal (and thus, continue to pump up this BG!) on his blog.

I won't be heartbroken if my Wikipedia entry falls away. It was an interesting experiment while it lasted. But, as my colleague Jenny Wagler says, Wiki will be sorry when I do become (significantly) more notable one day and they have to start from scratch.

Interestingly, even as they say in one breath that I'm questionably notable, they quote me in another. My Google Twin article is actually referenced in the Wikipedia Signpost newsroom.

Also, shout out to Donna B. from Ottawa who sent me props on the article via Facebook! It's always nice (and certainly not the norm) to get positive feedback about things we write, and it seems she has a similar Googleganger predicament.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Countown, truly now

I hear through the grapevine of copy editors that this Google epic is finally going to print this weekend, thus hopefully pumping my online existence through the roof with all the curiosity it might pique from readers. Who are, at the very least, my mother. Perhaps my dad, if he can tear himself away from the Toronto Star.

My poor briannagoldberg.com has slipped into obscurity in Google rankings, but I'm pretty sure that's because I redirected it from the .com to my wordpress blog. I feel like Google wouldn't want to rate things that are just redirections.

I know there's some way to actually run a wordpress blog out of the .com, but it was taking me forever to figure out how and really, it's important the keep asking myself, "Do I REALLY need to do this?" as I spend hours tinkering away at my online self that, if the internet ever blooped down, would no longer exist.

I think it's probably worth an hour or two more, to get myself together since people that read the article might potentially (hopefully) visit it and offer me book deals and television series and whatnot. I mean, recognize my fantastic journalism. Because that's a reward in itself.

So off I go to reinvent briannagoldberg.com and muse on what I'd do with my own television series. I'm pretty sure it would involve me playing banjo.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The disappearing briannagoldberg.com

And then it was gone again.

How is it that Google can index my poor little occasionally invisible briannagoldberg.com, and then sometimes not show it? It gets lonely out there in the webisphere when it's not acknowledged... especially since I'm paying for it.

The good news is that all my little social networking attempts are really truly starting to fall into place (before I was just trying to make myself feel better about it, but now it is a fact), and thus I'm now fairly consistently the hits on pages one through three (yeah!).

My Linked In remains elusive, and my Wikipedia entry is still number two. But it's nice to know that all those hours making user names and passwords I have already forgotten for my multiple socially networked selves is somehow paying off.

Today will be spent working on a multimedia project based on my interview with Jim Killeen, the producer that made the doc Google Me, where he met with several of his other selves. I like listening to that interview over and over as I work on it because he is such a positive fellow. He seems quite glad to share his identity. While I am getting there myself, I feel I still have a lot to learn from him.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Dr. Katie says

I was telling my friend in medical school about this whole experiment yesterday.

The story gets shorter and shorter every time I mention it to people, but I did leave in the detail that The Other Brianna Goldberg posted on her Wikipedia user page (the one that remains above my own WikiEntry) that she suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder.

"That's so borderline," she said.

My friend the soon-to-be-doctor explained that those who are Borderline tend to crave attention, and that might explain why there is just so much autobiographical material from The Other Brianna Goldberg on the internet... why there's so many of her Google Rankings that I'm fighting to win over.

Because, while I do have the top spot, I am still only eight out of ten.

The experiment continues.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Delayed, hooray'd

Number one! Number one!

It was a sweet, sweet moment when I Googled myself this afternoon and found that the fledgling briannagoldberg.com had finally been indexed. Thus, something uniquely mine will remain the top hit for as long as I control the domain.

Weeyoo! Number one!

Now I have to actually make it more than an online business card. All I wanted to do was get the domain, but now that I have it, I feel I should make it more... top-spot-worthy.

This project has been so odd because everything I do to try and fulfill my assignment has much bigger real-world implications for my reputation. Ie; I just found that only one entry from this blog has been indexed... and it's the one where I accidentally invited everyone I had ever sent an email to into Linked In.

The article, for various reasons, has been postponed for a week or two, since it's going in a weekly section that filled up quickly this week with timely things and that's themed next week.

It's only a letdown because I was working so hard at it and it would be nice to have it done with. But by putting it on pause it allows the fruit of my internet labours to become nice and ripe, and for my many online selves to populate the Google search.

Which I now see it's starting to do rather quickly, for better or for worse.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Deadline approaching

My article is due tomorrow, and not much has changed in Brianna Goldberg land.

I am hoping that magically Google will index all my many new online appearances while I sleep. Or that perhaps you will link to this blog, and help pump *clap* me up.

Yes, you. Right now.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Holding steady; meeting-ready?

My NP articles are holding, as is my WikiPage... though BG The Other still comes in above it. My Digg profile has moved up, my Meetups profile has moved down, and on the second page a whole bunch of direct links to my articles.

I also noticed that anOTHER Brianna Goldberg lives very close to my boyfriend in Boston... next to a street called Peterborough, the name of the town he's from in Ontario.

BG#3 is a year younger than me, a Saggitarius like me, and plays bass like me.

Should I maybe try to meet her the next time I'm there?

My source's comment the other day that seemingly disparate things are actually interconnected becomes more true each day.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

It's happening... it's WikiShowingUp!

My sources say that the internet only shows two hits from each domain, and until now BG The Other has held both of them.

Thanks to my colleague's re-posting of the WikiGoldberg, within the past ten minutes my entry climbed from the second page of Google hits to being the third hit on the first page, and kicking out one of BG The Other's WikiUser pages in the process.

Mmm... tangible change.

Perhaps if I post the link here, it might help my cause:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brianna_Goldberg

Holding steady at the top... now it's the middle that's the problem

I can't believe it, but my National Post round-up remains in the top spot!

Underneath, a profile page from a free weekly magazine in Ottawa (?) that I have repeatedly asked them to remove.

Then, the evil Wikipedia user entries for BG The Other that I can't trump.

As I mentioned, they got rid of my sad little Wikipedia entry. The comments said I didn't prove I was a person of enough importance. But have I turned the tables on them!

Today I re-wrote the entry, stressing that I'm the first person to have documented Canadian musicians exploring the African routes of the banjo in long-form journalism (true! and important!). And THEN, I linked my entry to an article of mine that a separate Wikipedia entry was using as a reference. That's two links in Wiki!

As long as the WikiPolice respect the importance of my banjo work, this is an iron clad way of kicking myself into those Wiki hits.

Ha ha!

Also, my Digg profile creeps ever upwards. Must keep Digging!

NUMBER ONE! NUMBER ONE!

The roundup of my NP articles is number one, people! Number one!

Here she is !

I think it might be because I wrote a ridiculous story yesterday that had the words "palm tree" and "sock" in the title, which seems like something that would have been linked to.

I don't think this will last.

But for now, it's sweet sweet VICTOR-ME!

Strange Connections

It's day four. My Wikipedia entry has been deleted. My LinkedIn with a myriad of connections still hasn't showed up. But (thank goodness), a partial summary of my NP articles are now ranking within the top five.

I heard from one of my sources today, who told me that such is the way of the web: things that seem to be separate (my activity on Linked In, which still doesn't show up, and the bumping up of my NP articles, which do) are actually interconnected. Can we say thematic significance?

He said often it takes 2-4 weeks to see real change, but my deadline is Tuesday.

I am beginning to wonder whether I should give in and buy my own domain. I was reluctant, because I wanted to see if I could execute this project entirely for free, but I feel now that I should buy that up just so I can have it, and see if I can fill the rest of the nine entries on the first page of Google (it shows ten) for free.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

This just keeps getting better...

I felt that the last social networking site I hadn't tried was Myspace, which is huge in the U.S. So off I went to register Brianna Goldberg, only to find... well, you guessed it.

But what I didn't expect was a blog posting on her site that makes this story all the more meta-interesting: it says that she is female-to-male trans-gendered.

So, she didn't even initially start out as Brianna Goldberg... she deliberately became it.

It now seems there was a time when I was the number one Brianna Goldberg. But not anymore.

Brianna Goldberg #2: Gaining Ground!

But not due to any of my own efforts... I think?

Today I woke up and Googled myself (wow, I'm really starting to feel vain), and I saw that the number two spot was filled with a summary of my articles on nationalpost.com ! Yeah!
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/index.html?subject=Brianna+Goldberg&type=Person

But the other BG's wikipedia user profile remains number one, while my wiki user profile and entry for myself still haven't made any progress; my own LinkedIn profile (now thriving, due to yesterday's mass-requesting mis-hap) is still nowhere.

However, the Meetup Group I joined for people who like to go to museums, theatres, etc, in Toronto is number four!

Things are afoot... just not the foot I had anticipated.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

WikiGoldberg

Ha! I have followed the experts' advice and created a Wikipedia entry for myself, with the help of a colleague.

I highly suspect they will take it down, as I fully know that I'm not important. My sources say I am "in the public eye" and thus WikiWorthy. We'll see about that.

This has GOT to do something to my Google potential, as my results are still exactly the same right now as they were when I began.

My Google Twin is winning without even trying to. It's maddening!

How completely embarrassing

So I made myself a LinkedIn profile, per the advice of two of my experts... but both times I have signed in to the site, I have accidentally invited everyone I ever emailed to be my contact on the site.

This means anyone I've ever emailed to freelance for (there are a lot of those), anyone I've ever emailed for an interview request (and there are even more of those).

And yet, within seconds of doing so, I've gotten acceptances from the most surprising contacts... people I thought would never remember me, or accept my invitation.

It's inappropriate and yet working in my favour.

I'm starting to feel a bit sour about this whole experience. And stand to benefit big time. Ugh.

Brianna Goldberg number 2 on day 2

Despite yesterday's frantic social networking, am still Brianna Goldberg #2.

They say second is the best.

I will keep trying.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Brianna Goldberg... back in action.

How do you solve a problem like multiple Brianna Goldbergs?

Honestly, most of my family, co-workers, and friends wouldn't so much call me a "problem" as they would silly, or enthusiastic, or banj'obsessed. The problem, dear reader, is that there are other Brianna Goldbergs out there. And one of them in particular is overtaking my profile.

I am so not a greedy lady. I don't mind sharing, really. Do you want some of the chocolate bar I brought today for an afternoon snack? I already shared some with the people sitting next to me. See?

The problem is that I'm a journalist fighting for my reputation in a business that's known for muckraking, and I need to make sure the muck that's being raked comes from my own muck pile. Otherwise, people might run amok in the online lives of the other Brianna Goldberg, while my life remains mostly in this realm. And with a budding career in mind, that thought is worthy of an expression also rhyming with muck.

And so today begins a week-long experiment I'm doing for the Weekend Post. I've been calling internet experts to find out how I can become the number one Brianna Goldberg on Google before next Tuesday. Because I'm obviously the number one Brianna Goldberg in real life, already. Hey-o!

My eyes are glazing over because I've spent most of today going buck wild taking the advice of these experts... there is, like, more than 100 per cent more of this Brianna Goldberg on the internet today than there was yesterday. And I've worked for national newspapers and the national broadcaster, so there was already a lot of me to go around!

But one of the things that was suggested to help me out was to take a blog with my exact name. I tried. And found it to be already claimed.

"WHAT?" I said. Really, I did. Out loud. At the office. Then I did that thing where I pretended I hadn't said anything at all after people started looking at me. "What?" I said, again, this trying to shame away their stares. Anyway.

I clicked on the link, only to find that briannagoldberg.blogspot.com is MINE from several years ago. In fact, before I even started at journalism school. Look at me now, old Brianna Goldberg! I may have a job (for the time being), but I'm fighting for our supremacy!

It's interesting to look back at my old posts and see how scared I was. I think in many ways things have changed, and in others I am the same old me.

Thus, I have resumed this blog to both pump up my Google presence, and also revive a nostalgic artifact.

When I tried to sign back on to this blog, the host said I had to sign a new agreement but that I had inherited the name under Legacy. I find that term mostly poignant. With a dash of self-serving.

In any event, I am off to eat chicken wings with my room-mate and hope that The Internet will index my many web workings today.

Will I be closer to being the number one Brianna Goldberg tomorrow? Will I be able to be all top 10 hits by the end of the week?

Link to this blog to help me in my quest!