I consider myself an "old veteran" of the Internet. I have been using the Internet on a daily basis since October 1993. Of course, in those days it was mainly just emails through my university account. The Netscape browser had not even been invented, let alone Google, Hotmail or Facebook.

I have maintained a web presence through a website, in one guise or another, since 1995. The oldest domain name I presently own was bought in November 2000. This domain (mandar-marathe.com) was registered in 2006.

That was a time when I was the only "Mandar Marathe" on the web, and things were relatively simple. A Google search for "Mandar Marathe" resulted in my name at the top of the results page; the first 2-3 pages of search results were dominated by my various sites and pages.

The only real battle in those days was between Jay Marathe and I to see who would come at the top of a Google search for "Marathe".

When people used to ask for the URL of my website, I would tell them to just Google for my name and I was fairly confident they’d find me.

However. Things have gotten a little out of control over the past 12-18 months with lots of young new whippersnapper "Mandar Marathe"s popping up all over the shop. Admittedly, I had increasingly struggled to maintain pole position over the past 3-5 years and I have taken my eye off the ball recently. But the situation right now is just intolerable.

So folks, the gloves are coming off, and this is getting serious now. This old boy can still teach you newbies a few things.

I am having to re-think, re-design, re-engineer and rationalise my entire web presence. As a start, this site (Mandar-Marathe.com) will focus on personal topics only. I will be launching a new site – Marathe.org – as a professional/work "portfolio" site.

Plus I have a few more little SEO tricks up my sleeve, collected over the past 16 years of making websites. Watch this space, you other Mandar Marathes… the Internet isn’t big enough for both of us. And when it comes to the Google search results page – position #2 is simply not good enough … … …