John Madigan's Blog

My Favorite iPhone Apps

My favorite (and arguably the most useful) iPhone application is Yelp. Yelp integrates seamlessly with Google Maps, displacing the need for the in-car GPS system. 

A few other great apps for the iPhone are:

• Backgrounds - a great selection of photos to spice up your background
• aNote - a simple app to take notes
• Echofon - my favorite app for Twitter

For social networking and dating, the latest version of the Facebook app now includes push notifications. And the Match.com application offers a simple interface that has yet to be imitated or bested by eHarmony.

What is your favorite iPhone app?

Is Your Name Googleable?

A couple of weeks ago I googled my name (John Madigan) and came up with a host of random results. As it turns out, there are lot more John Madigans in the world than I expected.

So I set out to develop a personal identity/brand that would appear in the first page of the search results when you google "John Madigan". Given that I have little expertise with search engine optimization (SEO), my primary goal was just to be found in search results. 

Here are a few of the easy, non-technical steps I took to be more googleable:

• Personal website. I bought a domain name from godaddy (johnmadigan.net) and created a simple personal website using a programmer I hired on Elance. It was simple, cost less than $100, and took about 3 days in all. 
• Blog. I created a blog using typepad and followed the directions to submit my blog to Google. Now when you search for my name, one of the top results is my blog.   
• Google profiles. I set up a free profile using my google login information. Now my google profile shows up at the bottom of the results page when my name is searched.  
• Facebook Vanity URL. I created a vanity URL for my Facebook page. This makes my Facebook page more likely to be found when my name is googled. 
• Linkedin Public URL. I created a public URL for my Linkedin page.
• Twitter. I used my real name as my Twitter username.
• Other. There are plenty of other niche social networking websites for any industry that will allow you to create a free profile (and be included in google search results). For example, attorneys can create a profile on Martindale or Avvo.