I was contacted a few years ago by a young woman who was the bass player in a local band. I had made mention of her a few months earlier as “This really hot bass player for _____ who is playing in New Haven”
She then applied for an interview, and her interviewer did an internet search on her: Asking her to defend their google results of her name. She contacted me with several questions, posed by her:
“How do you know me?”
“What do you mean by what you said?”
And I immediately became very interested. She had actually lost the job because of similar comments, and photos of her giving the devil sign at some shows and appearances.
A name change won’t work. I’m thinking of changing my own name (Legally) when it comes time for me to move (We’ll see how November turns out)
I'm very active on the web (FR and elsewhere on the blogosphere).
I have no presence on the web in my real name. I use several personas. Email addresses connected to those personas are not the email addresses I use for work, or which are connected to my real name. Young people should do likewise.