The discussion started with an article in the Wall Street Journal. It noted that more and more people want to be found on google and (social) networking sites: “some of the “un-Googleables” say being crowded out of search results actually carries a professional and financial price.” They are probably right. 80% of the recruiters use the web to check on job applicants. And of all the searches on google, 7% is on a person’s name! Also, adults are doing what they can. They adopt ‘fake’ middle names or initials, put them on their bussiness cards and their websites in order to get the top results in google. Some people are very determined. Check out John Wilson’s blog about his fight to top of the google results.
.
While newborn’s search engine optimization might seem a plausible option today, I think we will laugh about it in the future. For the ‘uniquely named infants’ it will be at least 20 years away, before they will get googled by recruiters. With technology progressing as rapidly as it is (google is only eight years old!), I think the way we search twenty years from now will be completely different than classic google searching. And then there you are, named Kohler or Abigail. I think we’ll have a generation of kids born between 2006 and say 2015 with crazy names. They’ll be known as the ‘google kids’, just like the generation of kids with hippie parents, with names like wisdom, joy or summer.
The question is, what are the searchengines/methods of the future and how does it handle individuals?

Two afterthoughts:

1. My brother is very happy that he cannot be found. Not everybody wants to be in the spotlights.
2. Just for fun: Anti-names are on their way, just name your kid Google!