Searching for emails…

January 31, 2006 By

Is search done yet? Quick, find a list of 100 bloggers. Now, quick, tell me what their email addresses are.

You can find mine pretty easily. Just go to Google or MSN or Yahoo and type:

Scoble email

And you’ll find it within the first few links. Why? Cause I put my email on my home page. It’s amazing how hard many bloggers make it to find their email address. I should just be able to go to your home page and search for the @ character and find your email address.

But, this all got me thinking. What if we could get things into search engines? What if we could just post one post with all the stuff you’d want to appear in Google or MSN or Yahoo for when people search for your name? Wouldn’t that be cool? I think so. It’d let me get some sleep.

Oh, and if you think I have a deep rolodex? You’d be confusing me with Buzz Bruggeman. I’d rather just find you in a search engine. If I can’t find your email address in a search engine? Well, then, I can’t invite you to cool things, can I?

Here’s my post for the search engines:

Robert Scoble’s email: rscoble@microsoft.com
Robert Scoble’s cell phone: 425-205-1921
Robert Scoble’s mailing address: 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Robert Scoble’s birthday: 1/18/1965
Robert Scoble’s best friend: Dave Winer
Robert Scoble’s significant other: Maryam Ghaemmaghami (married November 2, 2002).
Robert Scoble’s offspring: Patrick Scoble (born January 14, 1994).

What else should we put into the search engines? Yeah, I’m doing this just to see what’ll happen on my search query. By the way, have you searched for your name lately on Google? They’ve been displaying more stuff lately.

Filed Under: Blog Tips, Second Life
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  • http://www.jakeludington.com Jake Ludington

    Robert: “it’s been there for almost three years and I don’t get much spam.” is valid inside the sphere of Microsoft. You work for one of the companies actively trying to solve the spam problem. In the real world, posting your email address in public is asking to get spam. Post an address that isn’t in the microsoft.com domain space and see how long it takes for the spam to start piling up.

    I hide my email address in a Flash image that anyone can click but spammers can’t scrape. Flash is the one thing automated spam scrapers haven’t figured out how to parse yet. When there’s a monetary incentive to figure it out, Flash won’t be safe either.

  • solomonrex

    Ummmm… How many readers are filling out credit card offers right now?

  • solomonrex

    Ummmm… How many readers are filling out credit card offers right now?

  • AT

    How about your SSN, credit card number and bank account information ?

  • AT

    How about your SSN, credit card number and bank account information ?

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Larry, I get very few phone calls. I only have one phone. Even my work number usually is forwarded to my cell. That said, for the next six days I’ll rarely be on my cell phone. Why? Roaming in Europe costs $1.29 per minute.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    AT: I might be blonde but I’m not THAT blonde! :-)

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Larry, I get very few phone calls. I only have one phone. Even my work number usually is forwarded to my cell. That said, for the next six days I’ll rarely be on my cell phone. Why? Roaming in Europe costs $1.29 per minute.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    AT: I might be blonde but I’m not THAT blonde! :-)

  • http://www.greenjem.com (the other) Larry

    The NSA loves you, Robert. I don’t even put my name on my personal website.

  • http://www.greenjem.com/ (the other) Larry

    The NSA loves you, Robert. I don’t even put my name on my personal website.

  • TechnoBalance

    People don’t you get it… its all because of Anina… :)

  • TechnoBalance

    People don’t you get it… its all because of Anina… :)

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  • Ben Evans

    Heh, actually, when you search for my name you get all this interesting stuff about some rugby player and a character on a soap opera

  • Ben Evans

    Heh, actually, when you search for my name you get all this interesting stuff about some rugby player and a character on a soap opera

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  • http://www.marybranscombe.com/ Mary Branscombe

    I like the idea of email escrow services; something that passes me the message without disclosing my address until I want to. I’ve only had one online ‘stalker’ and they weren’t serious, but I have concerns.

    I was transcribing a fascinating conversation I had with Marc Smith about SNARF yesterday and he was talking about the serendipity of strangers and the value of our attention. “SNARF isn’t about banishing strangers; it’s about putting them in their proper place. By default it tends to focus on who are your stronger connections; simply clicking one button inverts that and now you have your weakest social relationships at the top. All your strangers are one click away. Strangers’ emails are more likely to get lost beneath the waves of incoming mail without SNARF. If you look at the Inbox today it is ordered by what I like to call the ADD sort order. If you have ADD, “If it’s new, it’s interesting”. I have a hard time believing that any random internet user on earth can simply throw a message into my Inbox and I will have to pay attention to it.”

  • http://www.marybranscombe.com Mary Branscombe

    I like the idea of email escrow services; something that passes me the message without disclosing my address until I want to. I’ve only had one online ‘stalker’ and they weren’t serious, but I have concerns.

    I was transcribing a fascinating conversation I had with Marc Smith about SNARF yesterday and he was talking about the serendipity of strangers and the value of our attention. “SNARF isn’t about banishing strangers; it’s about putting them in their proper place. By default it tends to focus on who are your stronger connections; simply clicking one button inverts that and now you have your weakest social relationships at the top. All your strangers are one click away. Strangers’ emails are more likely to get lost beneath the waves of incoming mail without SNARF. If you look at the Inbox today it is ordered by what I like to call the ADD sort order. If you have ADD, “If it’s new, it’s interesting”. I have a hard time believing that any random internet user on earth can simply throw a message into my Inbox and I will have to pay attention to it.”

  • http://larryborsato.com/ Larry Borsato

    I’d just like to know why there is no way to indentify a phone number on a web page. There is the mailto: prefix for email, but why not a phone: prefix? Or an IM: (or AOL:, Yahoo:, MSN:, and Google:)?

    With the proliferation of VoIP and Skype and Gizmo, why can’t I just click to dial?

  • http://larryborsato.com Larry Borsato

    I’d just like to know why there is no way to indentify a phone number on a web page. There is the mailto: prefix for email, but why not a phone: prefix? Or an IM: (or AOL:, Yahoo:, MSN:, and Google:)?

    With the proliferation of VoIP and Skype and Gizmo, why can’t I just click to dial?

  • http://www.conchbbs.com/ Scott Royall

    For crying out loud, people! I just blogged about this yesterday at http://spaces.msn.com/adayinthelifeofaperson/. Cloudmark brings spam down to virtually zero.

  • http://www.conchbbs.com Scott Royall

    For crying out loud, people! I just blogged about this yesterday at http://spaces.msn.com/adayinthelifeofaperson/. Cloudmark brings spam down to virtually zero.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Umm ever hear of vCard? Solution long been around, low adoption accounts for people not much knowing.

  • Christopher Coulter

    Umm ever hear of vCard? Solution long been around, low adoption accounts for people not much knowing.

  • TechnoBalance

    microformats suck in the way of implementation… there are natural things like Roberts post above that should do thing… there is something behind the scene I feel it … :)

  • TechnoBalance

    microformats suck in the way of implementation… there are natural things like Roberts post above that should do thing… there is something behind the scene I feel it … :)

  • AT

    Robert,
    How can we trust you – if you are not willing to trust us by sharing your credit card information ? :)

  • AT

    Robert,
    How can we trust you – if you are not willing to trust us by sharing your credit card information ? :)

  • http://thinkabdul.com/ Abdul Aziz

    How much spam email do you get Robert?

  • http://thinkabdul.com Abdul Aziz

    How much spam email do you get Robert?

  • J

    Can we have your social while you are at it?

  • J

    Can we have your social while you are at it?

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Abdul: not much. In my main inbox? Probably two or three a day. Sometimes less, sometimes more. In my junk folder? About 30 a day.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Abdul: not much. In my main inbox? Probably two or three a day. Sometimes less, sometimes more. In my junk folder? About 30 a day.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Michael: you change your blog and it propogates out through the system.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Michael: you change your blog and it propogates out through the system.

  • http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/ Nathan Weinberg

    Wow, I thought Patrick Scoble was older. He comes off that way, I guess.

  • http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/ Nathan Weinberg

    Wow, I thought Patrick Scoble was older. He comes off that way, I guess.

  • http://comicstripblog.com/ Comic Strip Blogger

    Sorry for personal question, but it wonders me: is Maryam a biological mother of Patrick, your son?

  • http://comicstripblog.com Comic Strip Blogger

    Sorry for personal question, but it wonders me: is Maryam a biological mother of Patrick, your son?

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  • http://www.backupbrain.com/ Dori

    I don’t read your comments very often, so it was very weird to see my name mentioned in them…

    Robert: I don’t usually search for the word “email,” instead, I search for the word “contact”. Look for that, and every page on my blog has a way to send me email. And while it was scary to see how easy it was to find my office phone number that way, no one has actually used it to contact me that I can recall.

    John: JavaScript has regular expressions, and you can do darn near anything with text strings and regexp if you know what you’re doing.

  • http://www.backupbrain.com/ Dori

    I don’t read your comments very often, so it was very weird to see my name mentioned in them…

    Robert: I don’t usually search for the word “email,” instead, I search for the word “contact”. Look for that, and every page on my blog has a way to send me email. And while it was scary to see how easy it was to find my office phone number that way, no one has actually used it to contact me that I can recall.

    John: JavaScript has regular expressions, and you can do darn near anything with text strings and regexp if you know what you’re doing.

  • http://dmackie.rucus.net/ David Mackie

    Larry Borsato (#37):
    There is a way to identify telephone numbers. See RFC 3966 – The tel URI for Telephone Numbers (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3966.html)
    Example tel:+1-201-555-0123 . There are also a number of RFC discussing URL scheme for IM as well. Client applications need to just implment them.

  • http://dmackie.rucus.net/ David Mackie

    Larry Borsato (#37):
    There is a way to identify telephone numbers. See RFC 3966 – The tel URI for Telephone Numbers (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3966.html)
    Example tel:+1-201-555-0123 . There are also a number of RFC discussing URL scheme for IM as well. Client applications need to just implment them.

  • Linda Marshall-Wright

    I have been looking for the phone number, address, oe e-mail of an old friend named Louis Sheffey. He lives somewhere in New Jersey; either Bloomfield, Woodbridge, or East Orange. I would like to know if he is okay. I have tried many people search sites; but I can not locate him. Please forward any info to my e-mail address. Thank you, Linda

  • Linda Marshall-Wright

    I have been looking for the phone number, address, oe e-mail of an old friend named Louis Sheffey. He lives somewhere in New Jersey; either Bloomfield, Woodbridge, or East Orange. I would like to know if he is okay. I have tried many people search sites; but I can not locate him. Please forward any info to my e-mail address. Thank you, Linda

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