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Tech
Advisory – TA02
A
Caution When Using Google
The
All-Powerful Search Engine
To “Search” Nationwide Telephone
Numbers
1. General
Use For Google -
www.google.com
The Google “Search Engine” is known
to be one of the more popular methods, today, for finding sources of
information. In most situations,
Google will deliver “thousands”, if not “millions”, of web-addresses
or their hyperlinks, to the face of your monitor, from which you can “pick
and choose” to find your information.
One
of the favorite things to do with Google is to let it search for a
telephone number that is listed anywhere in the Continental United States.
If Google cannot find the owner of a telephone number, it probably is an
“unlisted number”, or not a valid number.
Once the owner of the number is found, Google, thru a feature of
“Mapquest” or “Yahoo Maps”, will produce a printable map, with
complete directions, to the location represented by the found telephone
number! In some cases, this can be a handy feature to locate businesses
that you need to contact, or to research the “unknown or strange”
telephone numbers that appear on your invoices from a Telephone Company!
2. How
does this affect us?
If
you open the Google Search Engine, place your Home Telephone Number into the
Search Bar, then click the Google “Search Button”, you will see the “Results
of the Directory Search”, and the name and address that is on the listing.
If
your telephone number is
unlisted, it
will not be found!
When a number is found, there will be three
options provided. 1)
a small “telephone icon”, to the left of the number,
2) a link “to Mapquest”
for a map to the specified address, and 3)
a link “to Yahoo Maps” which will also provide a map to the
specified address. In most cases, you
would not want to have your Home Telephone Number available in the Google
Search!
3. The Recommendation
There may be some situations where it
is desirable to have this feature active (such as a Home Business Number), but
generally it is advisable to remove your number from the Google Search!
When you find that your number is
listed, and you wish to remove it, simply click on the “telephone
icon” that appears to the left of your telephone number and you will be able
to “BLOCK Google” from divulging your private information.
The process will take about 48 Hours.