The Google Blog post Search for “me” on Google caught my attention.
To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we’ve begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We’ve also added links so it’s easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn.
I’m glad to see Google doing this, although the larger issue, at least for me, is the fact that managing multiple profiles across dating sites, social networks and other communities is a PITA. This is why people are excited about Facebook Connect. One repository of our personal information, which can be shared across partner sites at the click of a button. At least that’s the goal, right now Facebook had too tight a grasp on our personal information, there is no exporter for backing up our information, and many other issues to numerous to take on in one blog post.
In coming months we’ll see desktop applications for managing our personal data, better privacy tools and deeper integration with search results like Google. I don’t know who’s going to figure it out first, but the arms race is on.
I’ve advised several companies on how to aggregate online identities with the goal of capturing a person’s focus, intent, habits and personality. This information is gold to marketers (and singles).
Dating companies don’t seem to get this yet. One person, one profile, accessible through multiple sites. It’s going to make billing complicated but it’s a strong possibility for the future of online dating.
Perhaps people will simply meet via Facebook or Google, with Facebook being a much stronger option, as Google has it’s hands full with other things and a 1/2-baked solution is not what singles need.
Whatever happens, it’s exciting to see companies continue to figure out the magic mix of discovery, privacy and communication. Hopefully the online dating industry will take note and begin to adopt some of the standards we’re seeing coming out of social networking sites.
Very exciting times, to say the least. My Google profile is http://www.google.com/profiles/relaxedguy.
