“The Web is like an elephant — it never forgets, and if let loose it can cause a lot of trouble.”
I'm at Saki Tumi's in NYC, reading the New York Times. A Paul Sullivan article compares the "web" (who uses that god-awful term anymore, except maybe for AOL?) to an elephant, in that "it never forgets."
"The college student who received Mr. Weiner’s picture said that she had awakened to find her name all over the Internet. Reversing that kind of damage takes time."TRUE... BUT... Gennette Cordova was voted by classmates as the person "most likely to end up in a tabloid" and she fulfilled her destiny. She'll do just fine.
Paul, right out of the gate I can think of a case where details of at least one human being with ties to the Capital Region were scrubbed from your "web" and where there's one there are likely more.
"Reputation.com advertises an annual membership fee of $99, but Mr. Fertik said that costs could easily reach $10,000 for a prominent person who wanted to make a scandal harder to discover through Internet searches. (He said Mr. Weiner was probably out of luck: “It would take a long time and more money than he has.”)"I'm sure, Paul, you spent a lot of time thinking about, gathering info and structuring your article. But if our pal Rep. Anthony Weiner stays in office, this is all MOOT!
You see, already the media has moved on to Sarah Palin's e-mails. And somebody is reporting that in Weiner's district, his constituents say they'll re-elect him. (Keyword is "reporting" - all the newspaper polls I have seen show 75-95% of the respondents want Weiner OUT) I can report Paul, that "everybody thinks Paul Sullivan should write a book" and after awhile you'd think so too! As the passage of time seperates us from the weiner circus, his chances of surviving this gets better and better --- good news for all of those concerned about "online repuations".
In any event, it's nice to know that ove can BUY BACK his or her reputation.
"Michael J. Hershman, president of the Fairfax Group, a risk and reputation management firm, said burying negative information could cost $500 to $1,000, but persuading search engines to expunge incorrect information could cost several thousand dollars more. Getting that information removed from aggregating Web sites like Intellius or PeopleFinder can add another couple of thousand dollars."Anthony Weiner, you may become "the guy who changed everything" !!!
Tags: Paul Sullivan, New York Times
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