Web footprints

[robinturner]

It's strange how light a footprint some people can leave on the web. I typed "Robin Turner" into Google and got 23 links to pages that were by me, or referred to me in some way in the first 17 pages of results, after which I got bored. Incidentally, the other two Robin Turners most referred to were a biotechnologist and the mayor of Derby.

In contrast, I search for Susanne Arlet, and get virtually nothing, just items in cast lists for the most part, plus her high school class (assuming that was the same Susanne Arlet). For God's sake she is, or at least was, an actress!

Comments

[alienghic.livejournal.com]

The web is its own self-referential universe.

Like finding information on computer technology is far easier than early women's literature (which is pretty hard to find anyway).

[solri.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course. The geekier you are, the bigger your footprint - even if you don't have a personal webpage or three, just being part of an archived mailing list spreads your electronic signature. And of course if you happen to have published something online on a geeky subject (constructed languages, in my case) then your web profile goes way up.

If for some reason I wanted a really big web presence, I'd do the following:

1. Stop trying to get my (well, our) paper on intellectual property published in a serious academic journal, put it on my website and get it slashdotted.

2. Write something about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

As for the original topic of my search, I'm still surprised that an actress could have such a low web-profile. But then, she doesn't seem to have made any films since the mid-eighties, so that probably explains it. By now, assuming she's still alive, she'll be too old and obscure to interest the kind of people who make fan websites.