When I saw this thread pop up, I thought of this particular cartoon. It fits.

By the way, James, tell your techs to get a look at the LINK button. It doesn't seem to be working from Firefox anymore... haven't tried IE. I had to put this one up manually.

Or, was that you? I've forgotten.

Probably me writing about Drezner ;)

There's not much doubt that having your political views out there for all to see will create a disadvantage if you're applying to work with those with different views. Presumably, that works in reverse, too.

Example... I don't have the link to hand, but I seem to recall Drezner writing at some length about a few people who were denied tenure for their political viewpoints web activities.

Or, was that you? I've forgotten.

Google shows "about 1,220,000 for james joyner"

That's not all me but, yes, I've got a relatively large Google presence. Most people don't. Aside from mentions on my site, for example, my wife is virtually invisible on Google.

Still, there's not much about me out there that I'd be concerned about potential employers or acquaintances seeing. There's not a lot of information out there that I'm trying to keep private.

Quite right. I write several blogs under my own name on which I have written well over ten thousand entries, have a Facebook and other social media profiles, a YouTube channel, a personal website, and even post my photos on Flickr. My life is much more of an open book than 99.99% of the population. And, still, there’s not that much of me out there.

I'm not sure. Google shows "about 1,220,000 for james joyner"

That seems like a whole lot of cross-reference work.

That said, it is true that most people don't know how to use the searching power they have available to them, and probably would see the majority of stuff necessary to damage you...

...or me, for that matter... I'm only showing around 5700 listings, on first blush.

and suddenly Sturgeons Law goes from 90 to '99.99% of everything is crap."