Google Me, Google You

People searches cover 10% to even 30% of all online searches. Sometimes it's recruiters doing background checks, conference encounters trying to recall who were you, but mostly it's the person herself.

When you search yourself, what do you find? What would you like to find? How do you feel, when people you're trying to impress find the same things? How would you react, when you meet your online presence in a job interview (see chapter 9)? That's right!

Google has a new service, which allows you to have more control over what people find when they are searching you. You can have your own Google Profile with a short bio, pictures etc. Most importantly you can provide links to sites, which you do want people to see. Your own pro website, no more embarrassing MySpace and Facebook party pics.

Do you have a google profile yet? Check it out with this link. More info on this page.

Just remember: you are online (since you're reading this) and you do have a history - it NEVER goes away. People will search you and they will find you. You can try to change your name and move to a foreign country, you can try to cover old stuff under a pile of new things. Nothing disappears. With Google Profile and it's integration on the first page of their search results, now you have a chance to look better.

Mobile Games on Demand

Gazimoff's geekBlog has a good story about a potentially new, potentially revolutionary gaming system. After seven years of development, OnLive has announced Gaming as a Service. We could call it Cloud Gaming, since these times everything is Cloud Computing.

Lots of benefits in such system, same as in every SaaS system. Longer lifetime for "old" handsets (N93i), market for used devices, recycling phones, more data traffic for operators. Some additional drawbacks, like people who might want to own an actual physical copy of their favourite games.

I would like to see Mobile Gaming as a Service, as a Games on Demand. Great for end-users, easy setup and updating, available anytime and anywhere, instant community, automatic networking with people with similar thought, sharing of pictures, video and add-on material.

Could be built on top of widgets platforms already today. Apple Dashboard, Windows Mobile Widgets, Nokia Web Runtime Widgets, Opera Widgets, Yahoo! Widgets, NetFront Widgets, Plusmo Widgets, etc. Widgets are the new black.

Business cards should have a story

Spent last week in MWC Barcelona, meeting lots of people. Some I knew in advance (great seeing you again!), some were new acquaintances (pleasure meeting you!). That's about 25 persons on a long day, on the average. Finnish people are not too socializing, I'm afraid.

This week I went through all the business cards, no big surprises there. Wish I had met someone from Lego and got a Lego business card, like Chief Happiness Officer Alexander Kjerulf! Found via Lifehacker via Geekdad. Credit were credit due.

Kids would love that. On the other hand, they were extremely happy with 3 rubber ducks, too, courtesy of Rubberduck company (mobile-tv business). Am I business for them, will I recommend them - who knows. I only know that for the next year I will see their logo about daily.

What does Your business card tell about You, Your business, Your product, Your service? Does it catch the eye, does it open questions, is it a reference to be saved for later use? Is it something to talk about? What is the purpose of Your business card? What is its expected lifetime?

Is there Social Networking outside USA?

One of the hot trends in MWC Barcelona 2009 was mobile/social networking. Lots of talk, but talk is cheap. Here's some statistics at Site Check - Web Site Advice, comparing January 2009 data from Compete and Quantcast.

It's sad to see how little life there is outside USA, not even worth measuring. Anyway it's always interesting to see statistics vs statistics. Wondering how Twitter is really doing?