Search engines and hiring decisions

BL Ochman (who always finds the most interesting stuff) alerts us to a case-study-in-progress, We Googled You

Hathaway Jones’s CEO has found a promising candidate to open the company's flagship store in Shanghai. Should a revelation on the Internet disqualify her now?

First of all, how do you know the information concerns the individual in question, is it Alice Marshall PR in New York City, or Alice Marshall of Presto Vivace, or a different Alice Marshall altogether?

Secondly, how do you know it is true? Is everything that has been said about your company on the Internet true? No? Than why should you believe something merely because it is on the internet?

Lastly, and most crucially, is it work related? Is the guy you are considering for the accounting position have a bad YouTube video with the worst karaoke performance ever? How does that relate to accounting?

With the explosion of social software most of us will have something negative about us. If you eliminate all those candidates you will have a very limited talent pool to say nothing of a corporate culture that is not conducive to innovation.