A vast number of articles have been written on the topic of Google’s privacy policies.  I know because I’ve probably read most of them.  Many of these articles discuss the specifics how Google stores and secures their user’s personal information.  Sure, I like to know that my personal data is secure…  But have you ever actually compiled a detailed list of your personal information that Google does know?  I just did, and it’s slightly startling!

Here are 16 things Google knows about me and how they acquired the info:

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I have compiled a list of 6 digitally traceable tracks we unconsciously leave behind as we trek through our daily routines.  I have also included a hypothetical example of how easy it can be to track someone down online by tracing their online affiliations and dabbling with the information that is found.

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With these points in mind, being anonymous on Google might sound like a safe bet.  But what really happens if a Google search for your name comes back blank?  If an employer searches Google for your name and absolutely no results are returned, are you really any better off?  The answer may be no.  A mid-2006 market analysis by career search firm ExecuNet reported that 77% of the job recruiters claim they use search engines as a primary tool to research potential employees.  It seems quite probable that this percentage has increased drastically in the last year. 

If Google can’t locate a single webpage that references you, how much of an impact could you have possibly made in your career?  If you have a tech based career it paints an even darker picture of your past performance.  Having your own web presence says something about your contributions to the market itself.  Even if your presence is derived from short intelligent comments left on professional forums, it shows that you are actively involved and aware of what is going on.

The best defense against being Google anonymous is a good offense.  Be proactive.  Create a web presence that you are proud to identify with.  When you set out to build this presence, use your real name if you want people to find you. 

Here are 3 ideas to get you started:

1.  Create a Blog – Blogger Adam Darowski suggests that the blog is the new resume.  If executed properly, it could be even better than a resume.  It is a true representation of who you are, spoken freely in your own words.  Your blog has the power to completely influence someone’s opinion about you.  It satisfies the curiosity of any entity, especially potential employers, which might Google you to see what kind of person you are.  The key is to show them your best, but remain truthful while doing so.  Truth is the key to success for any blogger. 

• You can create a free blog using one of the following sites:
  • WordPress.com
  • Blogger.com
  • LiveJournal.com

2.  Create a Personal Website – Popular domain sellers like GoDaddy and Yahoo Small-Business have simple step-by-step webpage creation tools that allow non-techie users to setup attractive websites.  A website is designed to be more static than a blog, so you are not expected to update it as often.  It could be used as a professional web portfolio by including your resume, professional works, career summaries, goals, etc.

• Get started with a personal website:
  • GoDaddy
  • Yahoo Small-Business

3.  Use Professional Networking Sites – Professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Ziggs can also assist you in establishing a respectable online presence that will be searchable via Google.  Both sites allow you to build an online profile, associate it with past employers, and network with professional contacts.

• Get started with professional social networking:
  • LinkedIn
  • Ziggs

 Just remember, if you don’t exist to Google, you may not exist at all.

1.  Find the Face Behind the Result – This is a neat trick you can use on a Google Image search to filter the search results so that they include only images of people.  How is this useful?  Well, it could come in handy if you are looking for images of the prominent people behind popular products, companies, or geographic locations.  You can perform this search by appending the code &imgtype=face to the end of the URL address after you perform a standard Google Image search.

• Examples (notice the differences in each URL):
  • Image Search for Google vs. Faces Behind Google Image Search
  • Image Search for Digg vs. Faces Behind Digg Image Search
  • Image Search for California vs. Faces Behind California Image Search
  • More info.

2.  Google + Social Media Sites = Quality Free Stuff – If you are on the hunt for free desktop wallpaper, stock images, WordPress templates or the like, using Google to search your favorite social media sites is your best bet.  The word “free” in any standard search query immediately attracts spam.  Why wade through potential spam in standard search results when numerous social media sites have an active community of users who have already ranked and reviewed the specific free items that interest you.  All you have to do is direct Google to search through each of these individual social media sites, and bingo… you find quality content ranked by hundreds of other people.

• Examples:
  • site:digg.com free “desktop wallpaper”
  • site:reddit.com free “wordpress templates”
  • site:del.icio.us free “stock images”
  • site:netscape.com free “ringtones”
  • site:stumbleupon.com free icons
  • More info.

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Here are the only 7 things Yahoo does better than Google:

1. Personal Finance – Yahoo Finance contains a great wealth of original content that easily rivals some of the biggest financial sites in the game (CNN Money, TheStreet.com, etc.).  The interface is equally intuitive and accessible to both new investors and longtime financial gurus.  Google Finance is coming along, but it isn’t quite up to par just yet.
2. Answers to Questions – Yahoo Answers allows users to ask questions or answer other user’s questions; A simple concept that works well for Yahoo.  Google has no such active service.  The closest competition on the web right now is Ask MetaFilter… also a great question/answer service.
3. Website Backlink Info – Most webmasters like to know exactly how many sites are linking to their various websites.  Yahoo makes this especially easy with their “linkdomain:” search operator.  It quickly provides a full list of incoming links to any given domain.  For some reason Google does not publicly disclose this backlink information, but instead provides a small sample of quality incoming links to a given domain via it’s “link:” search operator.  Google does provide Google Webmaster Tools that will give you backlink information for a specific domain once you sign up and prove to Google that you are the owner of the domain.
4. Image Hosting and Sharing – With its recent purchase of Flickr, Yahoo now rules the Web 2.0 photo sharing market.  Flickr is currently the king over all the other photo sharing sites out there.  Although, lets not forget that Google rules the Web 2.0 video sharing market with YouTube.
5. Local Search – If you are looking for businesses around your town or city, Yahoo Local is a step ahead of Google.  While Google can perform local searches in a variety of different ways through their standard search interface and Google Maps application, Yahoo Local is a more polished service that puts all local search capabilities on one convenient page.  Yahoo local is sort of like a digital Yellow/White Pages.
6. Entertainment Portal – From music to online games to sports, Yahoo provides a solid entertainment web portal capable of satisfying various entertainment and leisure user demographics.  For better or for worst, Google isn’t trying to be an entertainment portal, so it doesn’t even come close to competing with Yahoo in this regard.
7. Privacy Policy – Yahoo is arguably better with the privacy concerns of its users.  Certainly this point could be debated in favor of either company, but there seems to be more public controversy surrounding Google’s privacy policies.  Like most, I suck it up and use Google’s services anyway.  I do, however, have a Yahoo Mail account that I use to communicate with other bloggers concerning blog monetization strategies that may include Google’s Adwords service.  I figure, why let Google have access to that info too?

So what does Google do better than Yahoo?  Well, that’s easy… every conceivable task other than the 7 points listed above.  Of course, that’s just my opinion…  😉

I installed the Google Toolbar last month on one of my machines and didn’t realize that Google’s Web History was activated by default.  Angel and I had fun (or not) looking through some of the search queries I made over this month-long period.  I had a tough time explaining the motivation behind a few of them. 😉  Some were a little scary and others were downright hilarious, but one point became clear: If you’re not careful, Google will know every move you make on the web… the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Here are 7 Google searches that I made last month and wish I could take back:

1. Funny/Scary – filetype:txt “windows XP” +cdkey – No Mr. Gates, it’s not what it looks like.
2. Scary – My home address mapped out in several Google Maps driving direction queries.  Well, now they know where I live… lets hope Bill can’t afford to buy Google.
3. Funny – pamela anderson’s cup size – Honey, one of my coworkers must have typed that in when I wasn’t looking.
4. Funny – hemroid symptoms – Google now knows more about my ass than I’m comfortable with.
5. Scary – My full name – We all Google our own name right?  So what if they have my name and address now.
6. Funny – Kama Sutra – Yeah baby… I was just studying up for the big game!
7. Funny – -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(mpg|wmv) “paris hilton” – Oh, I’m a big fan of her music, so I was just looking for her latest music video… I swear.

When was the last time you checked your Google Web History track record?

Here are a bunch of fun problems that can be quickly solved by utilizing some cool Google calculation tricks:

• Conversions:
  • What is the speed of light in miles per hour?
  • How many Mexican Pesos are in 300 U.S. dollars? 
  • How many megabytes in a terabyte?
  • What is the mass of planet Earth in pounds?
  • What is the mass of the Sun in pounds?
  • What is 75 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius?
  • What is 12,345 converted to in binary?
  • What is the roman numeral representation of 1,197?
  • How many minutes are in a decade?
  • How many ounces are in 5 gallons?
• Calculations
  • What is 6 to the power of 25?
  • What is the square root of 123,456,789?
  • What is 1 and 1?
• Odd
  • What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?

You can find more interesting Google calculations here and here.

Below you will find a list of the top five Google shortcuts and search operators that I feel save me the most time on a regular basis.  I list out each operator or shortcut, its purpose, and examples of its use.  The list is in reverse order, saving the best for last.

5.  define: – Provides short definitions for words, acronyms, or common phrases.  Google aggregates this info from other websites and links the definitions to their original source.  This operator can be extremely handy when you need the rough meaning of a word in an instant. 

• Examples:
  • define:rss – get the definition of the acronym RSS
  • define:aspiration – get the definition of aspiration

4.  address, city, state – A quick and dirty shortcut for mapping out a physical address using Google Maps.  Once the address is mapped out, Google Maps provides you with “to” and “from” shortcuts that can be used to create driving directions.  With all my recent business travel, this shortcut has saved hours of my life that would have otherwise been spent on MapQuest… which makes MapQuest obsolete.

• Examples:
  • 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, 94043 – Shortcut map of Google’s headquarters.
  • 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA, 94089 – Shortcut map of Yahoo’s headquarters.

3. site: – Used for concentrating a Google search on a single website or domain name.  There are so many websites out there with flawed search functionality or no search capability at all.  This operator is the solution for saving time when you need to find a certain piece of information on an unorganized website.

• Examples:
  • site:problogger.net make money – Search for articles containing “make money” on ProBlogger.
  • site:lifehacker.com google music search – Search for articles about “google music search” on Lifehacker.

2. filetype: – Filters a search result so that it only includes documents of a specific file format.  Say you are conducting research online and need to find whitepapers that are typically stored in PDF format, this simple Google operator is the answer… a true time saver for online research.

• Examples:
  • filetype:pdf blogging – Search for PDFs on blogging.
  • filetype:doc search engine optimization – Search for word processing documents on search engine optimization.

1. allinanchor: – Conducts a search based on keywords used strictly in the anchor text, or linking text, of third party sites that link to the web pages returned by the Google search.  In other words, this operator filters your search results in a way such that Google ignores the actual textual content of the web pages, but instead bases the search result relevance on the keywords other sites use to reference it.  This search operator can help you save large quantities of time when a normal textual based search query does not fetch the information you desire.  Sometimes you can get a better idea of the content located within a website by reading how the mass refers to that site’s content.

• Examples:
  • allinanchor:google hacks – Search for websites that other pages link to concerning the topic of Google hacks.
  • allinanchor:wordpress exploits – Search for websites that other pages link to concerning the topic of WordPress exploits.

There are several other useful Google shortcuts and advanced search operators not mentioned here, but these five are the true time savers I can’t live without.  PS: I’ve submitted this Top 5 list to the ProBlogger Top 5 Writing Project.