A Google Nobody

This comment on Slashdot gave me reason to stop and think today.

noted physicist Dr. Franklin Felber will present

"Franklin Felber" [google.dk] has less than 40 hits on google. For that reason I very much doubt he is a noted physicist. By association, I am not going to take his claims seriously...

What Slashdot geeks are doing today, everyone will be doing in 5 years. And less than 40 hits on google will certainly not make you a 'noted physicist' ...and less than 5 hits may mean you're not a noted anything.

note - 19/02/06 People are arriving here after searching for 'Franklin Felber'. I don't have anything to say about FF or his ideas. For all I know he's the next Einstein. This post is about how people are using the web to assess credibility.

Posted by Alexander at February 11, 2006 11:07 PM

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Comments

I'm his sister.
I venture to say he is a lot more "noted" than you, if you would take the trouble to read his biography and accomplishments. And actually, you sound like just a snide, supercilious underachiever who doesn't vet out things properly before making grand pronouncements. Before blogs my brother would still have been a respected and notable physicist. You, my dear sir, would have been a big nothing, delegated to the oblivion you so deserve.

Posted by: Nancy King Baskin at March 8, 2006 05:28 PM

I'm sorry about the delay in posting your comment - it got misidentified as blog spam.
However, I do think your anger belongs with the original poster.

And the discussion at Slashdot is worth reading too -
"Franklin S. Felber" has quite a few more hits, but his publications seem more often to be cited as "F S Felber" which had 242 hits when I tried it just now.

Posted by: Alexander McCabe at March 23, 2006 05:29 PM

fortunately the web doesn't make you noted, just notorious.

I doubt that Franklin Felber cares what the broad spectrun of humanity think - I'm sure he is more concerned about his peers and employers, who know just where to find him.

P.S. good on his sister for supporting him, even if it was against an innocent party

Posted by: Matt at August 14, 2007 03:23 PM