Google, it was a funny joke back then-- but isn't it time we moved on?

July 27, 2009 9:35 AM

ReputationRepair: How can I fix the Google Search result that's showing an old name for a group on Facebook? The jokes not quite as funny 6 years later.

Well here's a fun example of sophomoric college humor coming back to bite a guy. Back in college many years ago I created a Facebook group based on an inside joke with my friends. Years later, that group title comes up as the 2nd result when googling for my name. This isn't as great for ones career as you might expect. I've gone in and changed the group's name to something more innocuous, tried making it both private to search, and also public (so that Google could pull the new name). Nothing has worked so far. Google keeps listing the old group name every time you search for me.

I'm scared to delete the group because then I'd lose control over it completely, so if it still came up in search results I'd be screwed.

I've also tried increasing my online presence but sadly it's really hard to compete with the page rank of Facebook groups.

What do you guys think I should do? Any advice for how I can (a) completely remove this group from the Google listings, or (b) have Google update the listing to the new group name and thus clear up my reputation?

posted by anonymous to computers & internet (5 comments total)

How long ago did you make the changes to the FB group (name/privateness)? Sometimes it can take months or even longer before Google's index reflects actual changes. I think I would stick with turning it to private, (but yes, also change the name!) and just try to wait patiently.

And though I have no empirical evidence that this works, a strategy to bump undesirable results down the page that I have used to some apparent effect is to every now and then do my search and then click through on one or two of the lower down results (e.g. a result you particularly like that appears on page 2 or 3), thus bumping the better ones up, ostensibly displacing the worse one. Try doing this strategy from different IP addresses when you have the opportunity, but don't do it too often or it could backfire. And don't EVER click on that result you don't like.
posted by gubenuj at 10:09 AM on July 27

You could always put a picture of someone else on the facebook account and change the location to a random place.
posted by rdr at 10:12 AM on July 27

Without knowing your name or the Facebook group, I can only offer generalities. A few possibilities exist:

Potential Problem A: Google has not recrawled that Facebook group recently, so it still has the old information. Google recrawls a given page based on an astonishing list of factors, most of which is how often that page has changed in the past. If Google finds something Very Interesting, it can recrawl it within hours (MetaFilter is one such thing). If Google finds it boring, recrawls can take around two months in some cases.

Potential Solution #1: Wait and be patient.

Potential Solution #2: Take another site over which you have control and tempt Google into looking at the Facebook group again by linking to the Facebook group from your control site.

Potential Problem B: Someone has linked to that Facebook group using the old group name as "anchor text" (the stuff in between the <a href="..."> and </a> bits) and Google, for whatever reason, still finds that valid. This is highly unlikely, but I have seen it once before, partly compounded by Potential Problem A.

Potential Solution #1: Find out what links to that site and see what anchor text is being used in the link.

Other solutions include making more Facebook groups and other sites with your name in it, then cross-link them all back and forth. This must be done gently, Lest Ye Anger Google. The "better" results should crowd out the ones you dislike.

This is all highly speculative, because Google is very secretive about how everything works. You can look up the very general PageRank algorithm, but that's like knowing that KFC uses chicken as the main ingredient.
posted by adipocere at 10:17 AM on July 27 [2 favorites has favorites]

Actually, angering Google might very well be the best strategy. If Google thinks you're trying to artificially boost a pagerank, they'll zero out the pagerank entirely as a penalty. Problem solved. :)
posted by Citrus at 12:29 PM on July 27

If you want to compete with the high page-rank of Facebook, and you have/don't mind getting a Google account, Google offers its own profiles now.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:09 PM on July 27