Where is John Wilson?

Check me out at the other blog I write for: WV Mountaineer Sports

I’m featured on the cover of the new NCAA 2009.

Just a little more than a year after its launch John Wilson and www.whereisjohnwilson.com achieves one of its top goals: make the first page of Google when searching for “John Wilson.”

Here’s the proof:

The next goal will be a little tougher; be the very first link when searching for John Wilson. It will be tough, going against the likes of Wikipedia and such…

Awesome story I found on ESPN.com …

Dana White, president of the UFC, states among other things that there have been no deaths or serious injuries in the UFC in the last 15 years.

He also comments on CBS’s airing of EliteXC.

With men across the country being abandoned by their wives for Sex and the City, it was a perfect opportunity for CBS and Elite XC to bring mixed-martial arts to the masses. The question was whether the primetime debut is good or bad for MMA. Here are the round-by-round results:

The Bad

The first fight lasted one 1 minute, one second. The guy tried twice to put together a complete sentence but couldn’t.

Middle-weight Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni comes out in a red sequins warm up robe and proceeded to dance out to smoke and pyrotechnics, Busta Rhymes in tow. Makes it much less like a sport and much more like a WWE match. MMA’s biggest battle to becoming one of the top sports in the USA is the bloviating, brutality and moron-ism. Phil isn’t helping. Thankfully, Joe Villasenor knocked Baroni out in the first round. Villasenor then takes the moron-optimizing opportunity to make the “slit the throat move” popularized when it was banned from the NFL. No one will remember this fight tomorrow.

In the Kimbo “Slice” pre-fight interviews, he talks about breaking arms, breaking necks, etc. Though, Slice isn’t the hard core thug you’d expect from watching his YouTube videos, this type of gratuitous violence isn’t very prevalent in the UFC. Dana White has gone as far as to change “Sudden Death Overtime” to “Sudden Victory.” Let’s try to keep the moron level down Mr. Slice.

The first and second rounds were telling of the difference between Elite and UFC. There were multiple times where the fight would have been ended by a more experienced fighter. From poorly executed guillotines, guys out cold on their feet, poor officiating and the fight not getting stopped, for either guy, throughout the fight, it was painfully obvious that these are amateurs. Not good for the sport. The brutality in this fight will appeal to some, but not for the right reason.

The Good

A big positive was at the very beginning of the evening; CBS took five minutes and explained to the untrained viewing public the various aspects of mixed-martial arts. From the difference between stand-up and ground fighting, to half-guard and the guillotine, Frank Shamrock walked us through the basics. Hopefully, this program will draw some attention to real MMA in the UFC.

Gina “Conviction” Carano, as usual, was calm and collected and represented the sport in a positive manner. After weighing in four pounds over the goal of 140 (which means she has to share part of her purse) and having her conditioning questioned all week she was half of the best fight of the night.

The fight really gets going in the second round when Gina lands a stiff straight jab that opens a horrible mouse under Caitlin Young’s eye that ultimately leads to her defeat. Gina’s short training calendar (three weeks) caused by her time with American Gladiators had her breathing hard just 30 seconds into the second round. Two more stiff jabs followed by a strong front thrust kick which took Caitlin to the ground. Gina got her back but couldn’t get the choke in time for the bell. The doctor called the fight as the mouse under Young’s eye was too much to continue. Go here to watch a replay of the Carano fight.

The very first round of the Robbie Lawler fight was very technical with a near knock out right at the end. Though the round started slow, an explosive exchange or two go the crowd back into it. This type of fight is exactly what Elite needed to garner the public attention and fanfare to become a legitimate MMA organization….

… until they stopped the fight over an accidental eye-poke. The challenger was ready to go but the doctor called the fight anyways. I think this was a quick trigger, considering a fighter gets five minutes to recover…maybe it was because it was 11:20 EST, and there was one fight remaining. Bad for Elite XC, bad for MMA.

Conclusion:

The Gina Carano fight was the best fight of the night. It evens out the two Busch league fights from the beginning of the show, and the crap stoppage in the title fight. I look for the UFC to pick up women’s fighting before the end of 2008.

That left it up to the Slice fight. When the announcer said, “he should attack the alien life form that is his left ear”, Elite stepped back three steps. A controversial ending that could be seen as a pro-Elite’s survival decision, my vote:

Net Loss for Elite XC and MMA - net gain for fighting on prime time.

Notes:

• Tonight’s announcers don’t have enough experience in MMA. Repetitive play-by-play, incorrectly identifying holds and not having the working knowledge that Rogin brings to the broadcast made the announcers little more than a distraction. The “chicken-wing”? This was even more apparent when they compared Lawler to Anderson Silva and … wait for it … Frank Shamrock? Seriously? Isn’t he like 80 years old?
• A lot of the personality of a fight is with the referees, unfortunately Elite XC used the same ref the entire night.
• CBS learns that two hour is not enough time for five fights; especially with all of the goofy fanfare of the first two fights.
• Nothing like “righting your life using your two fists” that’s a positive message, thanks CBS.
• Kimbo Slice loses to any of the top 5 to 8 heavyweights in the UFC, in the first round.

This is a very cool article from David at 37signals. In a way it relates back to drive, and how important drive is, regardless of its origin, to success.

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1033-productive-jealousy

“John Wilson” of whereisjohnwilson.com moves back up to page two on the Google results page when you type John Wilson directly into Google.

About nine months ago this blog was the first link on page two, and then for some unexpected reason I moved all the way down to page six. That was incredibly disheartening, and it actually led to me slowing down on posts and attention to the blog. Now that I have switched it over to WordPress and away from GoDaddy (thank God) I have been picked back up somehow by the Google spiders.

I’m certainly glad to be back, here is some proof:

Jim Killeen’s film Google Me is a documentary feature film now in production, explores the connection between a person’s name, their identity, and the underlying human condition that unites us all. — From Jim’s website

I had the opportunity to ask Jim some questions about his upcoming movie, name recognition, search engine optimization and even the social aspects of Google.

1. Question:On your website there is a quote that says, “It all started when I Googled my name.” Tell me where you were on that search and how it gave you the idea for your movie.

Answer:I think we all have ‘Googled’ ourselves. There is a natural curiosity to wonder who the other fellow is with your name. Who is he? What’s he all about? I found it more and more intriguing until finally saying ‘this will make a great movie’. So my concept is really an extension of what people are already doing, taken to an extreme degree.

2. Question:Was Google the main way you found other Jim Killeens? If not, what other means did you use that were effective? Or ineffective?

   Answer:My arbitrary rule was that they had to be found as ‘Jim Killeen’ through Google. Google has become ubiquitous in our society. They are so vast and have worked to shape what search is, that I felt they were the most natural way for me to do my search first and foremost, but also have a strong story line of how technology has changed the way we operate daily, and at what cost? I knew I wasn’t going to go through phone books city by city…it’s a film about how this technology enables a search like mine to even take place.

3. Question:How did people react when you were able to pull their information from the Internet to “track them down?”

   Answer:People had a variety of reactions when first contacted. It helped that we posted a trailer for the film right away. People (Jim Killeen’s really) could go and see that we were for real and professional and had a certain amount of production value, so that helped make the difference in several cases between getting and not getting the interview. Also, our group of JK’s is a bit self selecting; the guys that said yes were more inclined to have personalities that matched the spirit of the production, namely gamers that could roll with the punches of a crazy filmmaker who wants to show up at your house and film you, and oh, by the way, he’s really only interested in you because of your name.

4. Question:From the Freakonomics blog, there is a post about video as the next digital resume. Do you think “Google Me” will be a validation of this theory?

   Answer:It seems that we are all so media savvy today that video is a natural extension of how people can get the message out about themselves. One blogger called me a genius because I am branding my name. Well, that will be a happy byproduct at best. My first goal is to make a great movie, and the rest is cool, but really just gravy. People sniff it right out if you are posturing or trying to be interesting. Viewers are drawn in by someone who is interested, not trying to be interesting. So for me, I am genuinely interested in these other JK’s, and hopefully that will help draw people in and allow them to see some of the more universal elements of the film that extend beyond people named Jim Killeen. But at the same time there is a bit of dichotomy going on here; I am very aware that the tail on something like this is infinite. This movie will always be linked to me, and that adds some pressure, and must be completely ignored while actually creating the film. Otherwise you paralyze yourself into a box of watching what you are doing while you are doing it and you have just succumb to being interesting.

5. Question:In the film industry, how important is name recognition and what part does having a recognizable or distinct name play in finding work?

   Answer:Well, as one product placement person said to me ‘If Brad Pitt were narrating, I could get you money’. Brad Pitt ain’t narrating. Stars get movies made, get movies money, and get movies distributed. Period. I have no names, but a high concept that does have name recognition in Google. So that helps. I started out as an actor, and like thousands of others, couldn’t make a living at it. So, I’ve fought the ridiculous, unnatural game of competing against sixty others dudes to see who can hold the Doritos bag the best. But at the same time I didn’t want to do something gimmicky to try to get ahead. So I studied a lot, auditioned a little, and worked hardly at all. But I did do an Oscar Meyer commercial where I ran out of the weiner mobile as the back end of a horse, so I’ve got that going for me…forever.

6. Question:What about being at the top of the Google rankings?

   Answer:Top of the Google rankings…..hmmmmm, pretty cool.
   We didn’t do any SEO, or anything like that. We just posted a bunch of links from blogs and videos online. There was enough interest generated that way to rocket us up the search results!! Haha. I think getting mentioned in some blogs early on helped a lot.

7. Question:What is the overall message of “Google Me” and what do you see audiences taking away from the film.

   Answer:Overall, I think people will take away from ‘Google Me’ that we live in a world where we are all connected. In a good way. Where people will pick you up from the airport and put you up in there house. They will feed you. They will look at there lives differently because you asked them something about what their attitudes and opinions of life are. I also hope that people will see that the world is not a place where danger lurks around every corner and people are out to get you. So I found that people are genuinely good and interested in helping.

On the old site, I did an interview with a man named Jim Killeen. Jim is making a movie about Googling himself on the Internet and meeting people with the same name.

Recent, CNET News picked up his story. In the article there was a screen shot of a Google search page (see below). Pretty cool.

I can’t seem to get the database out of godaddy, so I’m going to sum up everything I wrote about last year, in reverse order, in a few posts (which is kinda sad I guess):

• Before I was listed on Google there were 109,000,000 posts in front of me
• (I still need a logo)
• Seth Godin said I wouldn’t last (btw… I outlasted his Dip Blog)
• I was inspired by people who use domain finders to name their children
• I explained how to use Google Analytics, Technorati
• Peter Morville author of Ambient FIndability links to me (and said Seth is silly)
• I get a first victory by making it to the front page if you type “john wilson blog”
• Blogger Mike Sansone has 530,000 hits, John Wilson goes to 123,000,000
• “John Wilson” goes to page 6 on Google
• 9rules snubs me
• “John Wilson” moves to page 2 on Google
• Richard Florida and the Creative Class and the importance of SEO
• John Wilson Fishing - Phone attacks trying to steal my cc number
• I stumble on Jim Killeen
• I get listed on Freakonomics
• I blabber about Celebrity Apprentice
• Deal or No Deal Strategy (which gets tons of random hits)
• I start MBAforRent
• I get promoted at work

All of this, and I’m tearing down the site to start here fresh. I was only averaging about 10 hits a day. Hopefully this new design will help me get things more focused.