Take a look at this search at Google. That search result is a search for my ‘online id’ or ‘nic’ or ‘handle’ that I’ve been using since around 1996. Right now the search for bhartzer is showing 4,200,000 results. So, bhartzer is mentioned on about 4,200,000 pages on the web right now. (That’s 4,200,000 pages that are indexed. I would suspect that there’s probably a lot more pages that contain bhartzer on them.)

So, what’s my point? Why look at the search result from a search for my nic, bhartzer? Someone commented recently that “I am everywhere.” Well, that’s true, I do a lot of promotion of myself. But, more importantly, it’s not me that you should be interested in. It’s the search result: of all of the places where my ‘nic is mentioned, the most important page appears to be my Netscape profile page. But, that changes from time to time, and it’s interesting to note that it changes from time to time, depending on my activity and the links to the pages that mention ‘bhartzer’.

As I look at this particular search result from time to time, I can see which pages, which social networking communities, and which message boards/forums are more important than others. Granted, there are certain sites that mention bhartzer more than others. For example, it’s obvious that I’ve participated on many sites more often than other sites. But, there are sites that I’ve only participated in (or on?) once or twice but they’re showing up in the top 10 search results for a bhartzer search.

You have to admit that a search for ‘bhartzer’ on Google does show a lot of pages. If you have a unique id or online ‘nic or handle, then you can use a search for your own ‘nic or handle to see which pages are more important to you: and if they’re profiles then you would want to make sure that a link to your site is on the page that’s more important to you. As you can see, right now Netscape is being pretty good to me. So, I suggest that you start participating on a regular basis with Netscape, especially if you are a news junky like me.

I took a look at some of the more popular ‘nics or ‘handles that people have, and it’s interesting to note the number of times these people have been mentioned:

Danny Sullivan - 1,050,000
Graywolf - 629,000
Shoemoney - 442,000
DigitalGhost - 107,000
Stuntdubl - 472,000
Andy Hagans - 65,100
BuckWorks - 64,400
DaveN - 684,000

Sorry guys, but it looks like I have you beat:
bhartzer - 4,200,000

I’d like to hear what your online ‘nic or handle is and how many times you’re mentioned in the Google search results.

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