Protecting Your Good Name
...unless you check, you'll never know who's using "YOU" without your permission!
– by Robin Nobles

I recently had an eye-opening experience. I happened to do a keyword search for my name at Google and found that someone had actually purchased Robin Nobles as an AdWord.

Upon seeing this my name in lights, the following thoughts popped into my mind.

1. I have no connection with the Internet marketing company who purchased my name, yet anyone who happens to perform a search for my name may think there's a connection. Call me crazy but I have a slight problem with that.
   
   
2. Immediately I begun wondering if what "they" were saying was accurate. I had no idea what I was being "used" to sell.
   
   
3. Surely this is an oversight on Google's part, because after visiting the site that purchased my name as an AdWord, I found that the search term Robin Nobles appeared nowhere on the page. Then I started wondering how my name could be relevant for that site? Answer: It couldn't.
   
   

So, I slipped on my PI (Private Investigator) hat and performed a few more searches at Google for different names. Lo and behold, I discovered this very same company had purchased Google AdWords for the following gallery of well-known internet marketing persons:

Stephen Mahaney John Heard Brent Winters Danny Sullivan Chris Sherman Eric Ward Jonathan Mizel

Note: Before you rush off to Google to search for these names, the AdWords have since been removed.

I'm suspect there we...