A Google search for your full name (admit it, you do Google yourself), is the best way for an employer to perform a “social profile background check” on you to see if there’s any additional relevant information about you that might not otherwise be mentioned in your resumé. Majority of employers look for well rounded individuals. After all, the activities we perform out side of our 9-5 is what shapes us. By taking it upon ourselves to own that responsibility, we in turn have a high impact on what a typical Google search on us comes up with. Additionally, If you’re concerned about what’s posted about you on some website, take the time to contact the administrator of that site, and politely ask them if they can remove that content.

Vanity URLs are a big craze right now as they end up placing keywords associated with your full name higher in search engine results. A good place to start would be to open up a LinkedIn account, and create an account associated with your full name, unless it’s already been taken by someone else. A Facebook account would be the next place to start unless you already have one. Again, you can limit what people see about you. A lot of companies have began establishing Facebook pages already and in many cases ask their employees to join them. Don’t be left out in the cold.

I didn’t know much of the Word Wide Web following it’s initial release in 1989 by the creator Tim Berners-Lee, who’s now the director of the World Wide Web Consortium. My first introduction was in 1993 learning how to take apart my Hyper Card projects at school and turning them into atrocious looking websites. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), much like any other consortium aims at preaching and continuing to develop web standards across the World Wide Web in order to maintain some sort of stability. With the huge variety of websites and companies offering web services, Web 1.0 began. Yet no one considered it Web 1.0 since there was no prior version to compare it to.

Web 2.0 came about in 2004 It wasn’t a technical software patch that propagated down from our internet service providers onto our computers. instead, the term Web 2.0 meant the process in the way we utilize the World Wide Web. To me on the other hand, it was and still is the way websites are built and the purpose they serve to those interacting with them. The idea of an Open Source System is the main characteristic of Web 2.0 in my opinion. Wordpress, Joomla, various Ajax libraries, and many many more are all perfect examples of sets of code built by open communities and distributed freely. These projects aim at growing communities and further help the development of the project wether it be through plugins or visual templates created by designers and developers.

Web 3.0 in my opinion has already began several years ago with the social media concept. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter are all fun and exiting social media platforms but with a completely different business model in comparison to Open Source Systems. Again, I stress that this whole versioning of the World Wide Web is hypothetical; In my opinion there is no set time as to when one starts and the other ends. Social media websites are all about establishing themselves as the living room of your daily networking activities online. The use of  ’some’ of that database is freely available through APIs which developers use to build web applications that manipulate that data through various ways with user interactions.  Yet, the home base stays in tact with very little customization from the visitor. Integration of the data from that database onto personal and company websites is where Web 3.0 is heading in my opinion. What happens next? Well the same way operating systems fight for your loyalty, the same way search engines fought for your “bookmark me in your toolbar as your place to start your day in front of a computer” will be the same way these social media platforms fight for your living room experience online.

Several years ago, I believe it was with the introduction of Mac OS X by Apple, Steve Jobs described the personal computer as the “center of your living room”. Microsoft in turn focused on the television as being the “Hub of your daily activities”. Social Media platforms now are all about being in the know about what’s happening as it happens and before it happens. Will you run home, grab the remote and turn on the TV, grab your laptop out of bag in some trendy coffee house and relax, or will you be the type to wip out your mobile device (iPhone, Palm Pre, Google Android device) and be part of the news or even better, have the power to create it.

Phase 2 of this idea which Natalie just made me aware of will be establishing visitor interaction as well as creating syndicated content. Therefore, the next phase of Poonut.com will be a blog. I would like to start building phase 2 as soon as possible, however, I need to preserve the simplicity of the current concept. I’m not sure yet how I’ll preserve both. In the mean time, I’ll focus on some freelance work that I’ve managed to acquire from this concept.

URL structure is another area where a lot of social media platforms are beginning to re-evaluate.

Take the current Facebook URL structure for our profiles:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602917483

and compare it to LinkeIN’s approach:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/simondabkowski

The URL naming-method reffered to as “Vanity URL” is LinkedIn’s approach in getting better search results for it’s members. It’s inevitable that other social media platforms will soon start following the trend. No more hiding behind 10+ didgit ids and complicated URLs. Start reserving your names!

Its interesting how the whole aspect of privacy online is beginning to shift in people actually wanting to be found rather then hiding behind aliases. Unless you’ve got something to hide, careful what you post online. Else, keep your profiles up-to-date and utilize the free exposure.