Searching for emails…

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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.

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

Published

123 thoughts on “Searching for emails…”

  1. This is fine in theory, but broken in practise – assuming that you even want all your contact details to be public. My name is James Murphy, my nickname is murph – these are not uncommon names, quite the reverse in fact…

    I could go on – but I ought to do that in a blog post, which I really ought to do…

    Like

  2. This is fine in theory, but broken in practise – assuming that you even want all your contact details to be public. My name is James Murphy, my nickname is murph – these are not uncommon names, quite the reverse in fact…

    I could go on – but I ought to do that in a blog post, which I really ought to do…

    Like

  3. Ahh, then, you need to find some way that your friends and family can find you. For instance, do you live in a specific town? Are you known for something?

    Like

  4. Ahh, then, you need to find some way that your friends and family can find you. For instance, do you live in a specific town? Are you known for something?

    Like

  5. I recently had some similar thoughts although I cam from a different direction.
    Read this entry in my blog to find out what I think how a solution could look like.

    Like

  6. I recently had some similar thoughts although I cam from a different direction.
    Read this entry in my blog to find out what I think how a solution could look like.

    Like

  10. ok, so no HTML here. bad luck 😉
    just reach my blog via clicking on my name and look for the entry named “Searchengines and AJAX”

    Like

  13. Savaged: no.

    In fact, the more people who know my real identity, the more likely I’ll be warned if someone tries to use it.

    Like

  15. Savaged: no.

    In fact, the more people who know my real identity, the more likely I’ll be warned if someone tries to use it.

    Like

  19. I don’t use the @-sign on any of my sites and weblogs because I don’t spam (except with tomato sauce in white bread.)

    Like

  20. I don’t use the @-sign on any of my sites and weblogs because I don’t spam (except with tomato sauce in white bread.)

    Like

  23. Paul: it’s been there for almost three years and I don’t get much spam.

    Scott: you could do something like scott @ gentzen.com

    Humans can figure out how that makes an email address. Spammers can’t.

    Google Base doesn’t work for this purpose, sorry.

    Like

  24. Paul: it’s been there for almost three years and I don’t get much spam.

    Scott: you could do something like scott @ gentzen.com

    Humans can figure out how that makes an email address. Spammers can’t.

    Google Base doesn’t work for this purpose, sorry.

    Like

  27. Or even better, if you want to hire somebody, post job ad on your blog, want to sell the car, post on your blog, want to find the date, post profile on your blog… jes problem is search engines of today will index some keywords but your information will be somewhere deep in the garbage.

    Like

  28. Or even better, if you want to hire somebody, post job ad on your blog, want to sell the car, post on your blog, want to find the date, post profile on your blog… jes problem is search engines of today will index some keywords but your information will be somewhere deep in the garbage.

    Like

  31. How about using an hCard microformat to markup up your contact data? That way, if we would want to, we could extract the information into our address books instead of coming back to this post.

    Like

  32. How about using an hCard microformat to markup up your contact data? That way, if we would want to, we could extract the information into our address books instead of coming back to this post.

    Like

  33. Scoble, the fact that you post your cell phone on your very public and widely read blog makes you a very brave man. There’s gotta be people just calling you for fun. Do you have something like “the blog cell phone” and the “super secret cell phone that only my friends and family know about”?

    Like

  34. Scoble, the fact that you post your cell phone on your very public and widely read blog makes you a very brave man. There’s gotta be people just calling you for fun. Do you have something like “the blog cell phone” and the “super secret cell phone that only my friends and family know about”?

    Like

  35. Robert, if you think the spaces between parts of an email address are stopping anyone, you need to meet a couple of my friends, Perl and GREP. Less than a half of sentence of code, and I can parse through a hundred pages in less than a second, find, and recreate every email address you’ve “obfuscated” that way. Hell, I can do it with AppleScript too, and I bet Dori could fly through it with Javascript.

    Just because YOU can’t figure it out doesn’t mean its actually hard.

    I found a simpler way to have a reliable contact method. I’ve had the same cell number since 1998. EVERYONE who needs to call me can get ahold of me that way. Everyone who needs to have it does.

    Other than that, getting in contact with me is pretty simple.

    As far as the spam thing goes, a good server filtering implementation, like Postini or GFI, and a good client filtering implementation, like Entourage 2004, decent folder management, and Spam’s a non-issue.

    Of course, you could just post a link to a vCard with all that info, and make things more simple.

    Like

  36. Robert, if you think the spaces between parts of an email address are stopping anyone, you need to meet a couple of my friends, Perl and GREP. Less than a half of sentence of code, and I can parse through a hundred pages in less than a second, find, and recreate every email address you’ve “obfuscated” that way. Hell, I can do it with AppleScript too, and I bet Dori could fly through it with Javascript.

    Just because YOU can’t figure it out doesn’t mean its actually hard.

    I found a simpler way to have a reliable contact method. I’ve had the same cell number since 1998. EVERYONE who needs to call me can get ahold of me that way. Everyone who needs to have it does.

    Other than that, getting in contact with me is pretty simple.

    As far as the spam thing goes, a good server filtering implementation, like Postini or GFI, and a good client filtering implementation, like Entourage 2004, decent folder management, and Spam’s a non-issue.

    Of course, you could just post a link to a vCard with all that info, and make things more simple.

    Like

  39. Pingback: Rice’s Link Blog » Blog Archive » Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Searching for emails…

  40. Home address, social security number, driver’s license number, mother’s maiden name, last three addresses – those would help disambiguate. And put the identity theft theory to a test.

    Like

  41. Home address, social security number, driver’s license number, mother’s maiden name, last three addresses – those would help disambiguate. And put the identity theft theory to a test.

    Like

  42. . actually that’s why I registered to alexa.com ‘s beta(you know the great idea Amazon had few week before last christmas).

    . my objective was precisely to build such first real Internet yellow/white pages …

    . unfortunately I dropped alexa.com emails twice in vain, still no access …

    . BTW why don’t YOU Microsoft offer the same alexa.com gateway to the web crawl??????

    Like

  43. . actually that’s why I registered to alexa.com ‘s beta(you know the great idea Amazon had few week before last christmas).

    . my objective was precisely to build such first real Internet yellow/white pages …

    . unfortunately I dropped alexa.com emails twice in vain, still no access …

    . BTW why don’t YOU Microsoft offer the same alexa.com gateway to the web crawl??????

    Like

  46. for most of us wordpress.com bloggers its actually no that easy, we can only add posts and links to the front page.

    i would have to create an ’email’ category to my links and then list my email as an address, i don’t even know if a mailto: would work in the address.

    Peter
    http://peteremcc.wordpress.com

    P.S. have you ever tried searching for @ on your page? it returns all your comments…

    Like

  47. for most of us wordpress.com bloggers its actually no that easy, we can only add posts and links to the front page.

    i would have to create an ’email’ category to my links and then list my email as an address, i don’t even know if a mailto: would work in the address.

    Peter
    http://peteremcc.wordpress.com

    P.S. have you ever tried searching for @ on your page? it returns all your comments…

    Like

  50. 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.

    Like

  51. 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.

    Like

  56. 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.

    Like

  58. 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.

    Like

  64. Pingback: appa » Blog Archive » Cycling, perfect twisted logic & a quibble about search

  65. 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

    Like

  66. 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

    Like

  67. Pingback: Things That ... Make You Go Hmm

  68. 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.”

    Like

  69. 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.”

    Like

  70. 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?

    Like

  71. 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?

    Like

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

    Like

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

    Like

  76. 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 … 🙂

    Like

  77. 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 … 🙂

    Like

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

    Like

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

    Like

  84. 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.

    Like

  85. 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.

    Like

  92. Pingback: ThePodcastNetwork :: G’day World » Blog Archive » Gday World #82

  93. 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.

    Like

  94. 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.

    Like

  97. 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

    Like

  98. 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

    Like

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  100. Pingback: berserk.org » Searching for emails, what about a contact.xml ?
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  112. HELLO,

    MY NAME IS ALIMA KAMOKAI A NATIONALITY OF SIERRA LEONE.I LOST MY FATHER
    YEARS BACK. HE DIED DRURING THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN MY COUNTRY. MY LATE
    FATHER WAS ONE OF THE DIRECTORS UNDER TIJAN KABBAH GOVERNMENT.

    I WAS LEFT ALONE. I AM LEAVING IN ABIDJAN COTE D’IVOIRE SINCE PAST SIX
    MONTH. IT IS MY DESIRE TO WRITE FROM MY HEART HOPING THAT YOU WILL NOT
    BETRAY ME.

    MY LATE FATHER DIVERTED SOME HUGE OF MONEY WHICH WAS CONCEALED IN A
    METALLIC TRUNK BOX AND WAS DEPOSITED WITH A SECURITY COMPANY HERE IN
    ABIDJAN IN FAVOR OF HIS FORIEGN PARTNER, THAT WAS BECAUSE HE NEEDED A
    MAXIMUM SECURITY/SAFETY OF THE MONEY AND NO BODY NOR GOVERNMENT
    ORGANIZATION CAN TRACE WHERE ABOUT OF THE MONEY.

    BUT THE SECURITY COMPANY DID NOT KNOW THE REAL CONTENT OF THE BOX,
    BECAUSE IT WAS DEPOSITED AS FAMILY VALUABLES, IN FACT IN A BRIFE I
    INTRODUTION.

    ALL THE INFORMATION WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU WHEN I HEAR FROM YOU. THIS MONEY
    TOTALING US$ 10,000,000.00 (TEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLAR ) NOW I AM
    SEEKING FOR A TRUSTED PERSON WHO WILL HELP ME AND STAND AS MY LATE
    FATHER’S FOREIGN PARTNER TO SHIP THE BOX TO HIS OR HER ADDRESS FOR AN
    URGENT INVESTMENT.

    HOWEVER, WHAT I NEEDED FROM YOU IS YOUR GOOD ASSISTANCE IN HELPING ME TO
    SHIP THE SAID BOX TO YOUR ADRESS SINCE I AM INEXPERENCED IN THE WORLD OF
    INVESTMENT, THAT’S THE REASON WHY I AM ASKING FOR YOUR SUPPORT. A DOCUMENT
    CONCERNING THE DEPOSIT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU FOR YOUR VERIFICATION.

    I REALLY NEED TO MOVE THE FUND OUT OF AFRICA TO ABROAD. I HAVE
    DECIEDED TO GIVE YOU 10% OF THE TOTAL SUM FOR YOUR KIND ASSISTANCE. THE
    WORLD IS FULL OF BAD PEOPLE PLEASE CAN YOU PROVE YOUR GENUITY TO ME FOR ME
    TO HAVE YOU AS A PARTNER.

    SORRY I AM NOT SAYING YOU ARE BAD PERSON BUT CONSIDER THAT THIS IS MONEY
    AND HOW THE MONEY WAS GOTTEN. IT IS INHERITACE AND LAST HOPE. SHOW YOUR
    INTEREST AND I WILL PROCEED ON THE NEXT STEP OF ACTION. AFRICA IS NO
    LONGER CONDUSIVE FOR ME TO STAY.

    I AM LOOK FORWARD FOR YOUR URGENT REPLY FOR MORE DETAILS.
    alimakamokaipl2@katamail.com

    MY BEST REGARDS.
    ALIMA KAMOKAI

    Like

  113. HELLO,

    MY NAME IS ALIMA KAMOKAI A NATIONALITY OF SIERRA LEONE.I LOST MY FATHER
    YEARS BACK. HE DIED DRURING THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN MY COUNTRY. MY LATE
    FATHER WAS ONE OF THE DIRECTORS UNDER TIJAN KABBAH GOVERNMENT.

    I WAS LEFT ALONE. I AM LEAVING IN ABIDJAN COTE D’IVOIRE SINCE PAST SIX
    MONTH. IT IS MY DESIRE TO WRITE FROM MY HEART HOPING THAT YOU WILL NOT
    BETRAY ME.

    MY LATE FATHER DIVERTED SOME HUGE OF MONEY WHICH WAS CONCEALED IN A
    METALLIC TRUNK BOX AND WAS DEPOSITED WITH A SECURITY COMPANY HERE IN
    ABIDJAN IN FAVOR OF HIS FORIEGN PARTNER, THAT WAS BECAUSE HE NEEDED A
    MAXIMUM SECURITY/SAFETY OF THE MONEY AND NO BODY NOR GOVERNMENT
    ORGANIZATION CAN TRACE WHERE ABOUT OF THE MONEY.

    BUT THE SECURITY COMPANY DID NOT KNOW THE REAL CONTENT OF THE BOX,
    BECAUSE IT WAS DEPOSITED AS FAMILY VALUABLES, IN FACT IN A BRIFE I
    INTRODUTION.

    ALL THE INFORMATION WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU WHEN I HEAR FROM YOU. THIS MONEY
    TOTALING US$ 10,000,000.00 (TEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLAR ) NOW I AM
    SEEKING FOR A TRUSTED PERSON WHO WILL HELP ME AND STAND AS MY LATE
    FATHER’S FOREIGN PARTNER TO SHIP THE BOX TO HIS OR HER ADDRESS FOR AN
    URGENT INVESTMENT.

    HOWEVER, WHAT I NEEDED FROM YOU IS YOUR GOOD ASSISTANCE IN HELPING ME TO
    SHIP THE SAID BOX TO YOUR ADRESS SINCE I AM INEXPERENCED IN THE WORLD OF
    INVESTMENT, THAT’S THE REASON WHY I AM ASKING FOR YOUR SUPPORT. A DOCUMENT
    CONCERNING THE DEPOSIT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU FOR YOUR VERIFICATION.

    I REALLY NEED TO MOVE THE FUND OUT OF AFRICA TO ABROAD. I HAVE
    DECIEDED TO GIVE YOU 10% OF THE TOTAL SUM FOR YOUR KIND ASSISTANCE. THE
    WORLD IS FULL OF BAD PEOPLE PLEASE CAN YOU PROVE YOUR GENUITY TO ME FOR ME
    TO HAVE YOU AS A PARTNER.

    SORRY I AM NOT SAYING YOU ARE BAD PERSON BUT CONSIDER THAT THIS IS MONEY
    AND HOW THE MONEY WAS GOTTEN. IT IS INHERITACE AND LAST HOPE. SHOW YOUR
    INTEREST AND I WILL PROCEED ON THE NEXT STEP OF ACTION. AFRICA IS NO
    LONGER CONDUSIVE FOR ME TO STAY.

    I AM LOOK FORWARD FOR YOUR URGENT REPLY FOR MORE DETAILS.
    alimakamokaipl2@katamail.com

    MY BEST REGARDS.
    ALIMA KAMOKAI

    Like

  114. From:
    To: “fukin’fukeer”
    Cc:
    Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 1:31 AM
    Subject: Re: wassup cun’t

    Due to rules regarding privacy for MS Passport, our company no longer accepts mail from Hotmail.

    Please find another provider. Hotmail accounts receive so much spam anyway, so you are probably better of without it.

    thanks for your time,

    Chris

    Like

  115. From:
    To: “fukin’fukeer”
    Cc:
    Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 1:31 AM
    Subject: Re: wassup cun’t

    Due to rules regarding privacy for MS Passport, our company no longer accepts mail from Hotmail.

    Please find another provider. Hotmail accounts receive so much spam anyway, so you are probably better of without it.

    thanks for your time,

    Chris

    Like

  118. Pingback: Rice’s Ruminations » More Privacy with Open Identity

  121. I recently had some similar thoughts although I cam from a different direction.
    Read this entry in my blog to find out what I think how a solution could look like.

    Like

  122. I recently had some similar thoughts although I cam from a different direction.
    Read this entry in my blog to find out what I think how a solution could look like.

    Like

  123. Pingback: Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » Lifecasting may well lead us to Crime 2.0

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