10 years ago if you googled Casey Peel, you’d find me and a picture of a child named Casey getting a sticker peeled off of his hand. I didn’t have a really strong web presence, but I was working at IBM and journaling on my personal website. A few years later I started blogging and publishing IBM Tivoli Directory Server troubleshooting documents, so my presence on the web grew.
Then in 2005 a guy with my name was arrested in Brownwood, TX for manslaughter. Brownwood is only 2.5 hours away from Austin where I was living at the time. Nothing warms your heart like knowing that someone searching for you online might think you’re a killer. Rest assured, I’m not that Casey Peel.
About 5 years or so ago while I was living in Denver a photographer from Fort Collins, CO with my name started pushing his web presence. Fort Collins is only an hour north of Denver. Thankfully his photography is quite good so being mistaken for him wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But I’m a terrible photographer — I’m not that Casey Peel.1
Then last year a guy from Tennessee with my name started making a name for himself as an MMA fighter. Thankfully, Tennessee is a long ways from Seattle. His fighting name is “The Jackhammer”. I’m not that Casey Peel.
We all are competing for similar account names on various web sites. Every once in a while I get an email through gmail destined for the photographer. The photographer registered the short URL I wanted for Google+. The fascinating thing to me is that we’re probably all related. There aren’t that many Peels in the US compared to the number of Smiths or Jones.
The past week I’ve made a concerted effort to ensure that my personal web page, blog, and social media sites all tie together and the information on them reflects my unique characteristics. I’ve included my name on my web page and blog (which, oddly, wasn’t there before) and linked in my resume. I’ve made sure that Google and Bing have access to the right sitemap.xml files and my blog and web page are fully indexed with them. I want to make sure that someone looking for the uber computer nerd named Casey Peel in Seattle can find me. Yes, I’m that Casey Peel.
1 I did have the thought of trying to meet him next time I’m in Denver and seeing if he would take my photo. We could call it Casey Peel by Casey Peel.
Digital Ramblings 