For many, many years, all ten entries on the first page of Google for "James Aylett" have been about me. It’s interesting (if you’re me) to watch different sites move around in the Googleverse as the rankings change. My own website vies against The Uncertainty Division and Talk To Rex, and various mailing lists and so forth. It’s been reassuring that, no matter how much Google sucks, they’re getting the important things right.
But no longer. Interesting things are afoot at Google. Firstly, a pretty much irrelevant page has crept into the top ten. It’s entirely about me (look, shiny!), but it’s also pretty useless, compared to say random connections between me and my friends, which is on the second page on Google. How it got a higher rank is a mystery (well, actually it isn’t, but let’s not start deconstructing the latest generation of PageRank while I’m on a roll).
Worse is that another James Aylett has appeared. His homepage is heavily commented, and apparently auto-generated, with almost no information. (This tells us something else about PageRank April 2007, of course.) In any case, while it is of course possible that people may Google for “James Aylett” and want to find him, they of course will be delighted if they find me instead, so it’s my duty to wipe him back off the front page. He’s only at position seven, so it shouldn’t take too long.
Yes, it is petty for me to rel-nofollow the link to my competitor. But in a world run by Google, he is my nemesis, and must be dealt with accordingly.