Google Twin Quest Fiasco!
Posted by Jon Lee in Offtopic, Personal, tags: canada, google, google-twinAbout a month ago, I embarked on a quest to defeat my Google twins (Your Google twin is the person(s) ranked above you in Google search results for your name). My goal was to become the most popular Jon Lee on the internet by Christmas time (most popular according to Google anyway). I did not envision this to be an easy task with two celebrities, a recruitment firm and an IBM manager ahead of me.
If you’ve been keeping up-to-date with my Google Twin Quest widget in the sidebar, you’d notice that the standings were changed yesterday to the following:
- Recruitment
- JonLee.ca (me!)
IBM ManagerS Club WikiFeeder WikiFeeder BBCS Club OfficialS Club IMDB
I’ve moved from the 8th spot all the way to the 2nd spot in less than a month! I seem to be well on my way of becoming the top Jon Lee right? WRONG!
Turns out I was looking at the Google.ca search results. Even though I didn’t select the “Search for pages in Canada” option, for some reason the Google.ca search results are different from the Google.com search results.
Since the majority of users use the .com results, I think it’s only fair that I use that as a benchmark. In that case, the results are as follows:
- Recruitment
- IBM Manager
- Feeder Wiki
- S Club Wiki
- Feeder BBC
- S Club Official
- JonLee.ca (me!)
S Club IMDB
This ranking look familiar? Looks almost exactly like what it was when I first started my quest. Are .ca domain names penalized in the Google.com search engine? Is Google.com just slower to update its results than Google.ca? I’m not sure but it looks like it’s back to square one for me! I’ve updated the sidebar widget to reflect this disappointment but I still have over 8 months to achieve my goal so I’m not too worried!
Popularity: 6% [?]
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Interesting project. I think I’ll try it myself. I’m currently number 6 on the list of searches for Jason Spence. Time to conquer my Google twins!
I guess I congratulated you too soon huh
No worries… you’ll be up there I’m sure!
The .ca domain must be weighted a little better in the Canadian search, because my results are actually better in the regular Google search than the Canadian one.
Weighted higher even when not “searching canadian sites”? Now that doesn’t seem fair!
Yeah I know, it’s a bit misleading. I keep my searches to the .com google for this reason.
I’ve never heard of the Google Twin. Mine is ranked above me, but since I don’t usually use my last name on my blogs, I’m fine with that. When I searched for my blog title, I was #1 and #2, and that’s kind of neat, considering that it’s also the name of a song.
I show you as number 4 from Google.com. As of right now, you are behind IBM Research, Feeder Wiki, and S Club Wiki. There’s some progress
Weird, I still see myself at 7th. Perhaps different datacenter or whatever. Time will tell!
I don’t know how i come across this post but it gave me a laugh, i think everyone has googled themselves but to set out and defeat your self
Classic, how did this all turn out ?
Jason