Have you done that QDOS thing yet? A few people have mentioned it. It calculates your online presence. Initially, all you can do is enter your name and postcode and it gives you a score. This’ll likely be a few hundred…which looks a bit rubbish when you can see 50 Cent there at the top of the board with a score of more than 10,000.
But when you apply to register – and are accepted – you build your profile by adding details around your online presence, so any URLs, blogs, Flickr pages etc etc, and your score increases. Your presence is split into four elements: Popularity, Impact, Activity and Individuality.
I added my details and my score went up to 4,420, which found me sandwiched between Seb Coe and Demi Moore. I haven’t decided whether I’m happy with that or not (though I’ve heard he goes like the clappers for four minutes and then it’s all over). A few more points would’ve seen me stuck between Catherine Zeta Jones and Terry Wogan which, frankly, is even more confusing.
But I still wasn’t happy.
And then it struck me. When you enter your URLs and blogs and that there’s no check on whether they’re really yours or not. So I added a few more…like google.com, microsoft.com, scobelizer.com, bbc.co.uk. Before you know it, I’m at 9,839 points, in 12th place overall and just behind P Diddy!
And I feel great.
So in return for sharing my entire online profile (inc shopping habits etc) and my postal address, they provide me with an essentially meaningless and pointless number. The clever chaps then presumably get to spam me bandy, making a fortune selling my information to the highest bidder…? Watch your direct mail go through the roof. Or rather letterbox.
Or have I completely missed the point?
Exactly!
Which is why I gave them your address. Hurrah!
hehe that’s funny
How long before some PR agency starts selling a service to increase your QDOS?
What a pile of pants. What does post-code have to do with it? I live in a digital village!