Unique identifiers that aren't

...This has been bothering me for some time.

Here are my top two contenders for the most irritating 'unique identifiers that aren't'. By that I mean: terms that should refer to only one entity within a range of entities, but don't. 

If you search for 'Apple' on the open web (e.g. in Google), then yes, you will get a combination of fruit and tech. That's annoying, but the two entity sets - 'fruit' and 'tech' - are fundamentally different. If you move to an environment that serves a specific entity set - a supermarket online service, or cNet - that if you search 'apple' you'll get the relevant entity.

But what if there were two tech companies called 'Apple'? Entities with the same name in the same entity set? Well, of course, there are. Here are my least favourite:

1. Place names. 

I live in a town called 'Cambridge'. It is in the UK. There is also a town called 'Cambridge' in Massachusetts, USA. More annoyingly, they both have prestigious universities (in the US, Harvard). Searches on the open web usually return both.

It's not a big problem for me, but I have undying sympathy for the good people of Paris, Texas, and Melbourne, Florida. (The Paris people especially - they must curse that movie).

Still - country filters usually sort this one out without much fuss. Unlike...

2. People names.

My name is Zoe Rose.  A google search for "Zoe Rose" (mini google hack: double quotes tell the engine to search for the words as a string, i.e. disallowing the whitespace delimiter) will return, in reverse order:

• Style A to Zoe by Rachel Zoe, Rose Apoda Apodaca by Little...
• Zoe Rose Mogan Jennings
• Zoe Rose - London | Facebook
• Motel @ Topshop Urban Outfitters Zoe Rose Dress M 10 12 on eBay
• Zoe Rose Designs - Hereford textile artist creating handmade...
• Video result: Piedemont High School Senior Speaker Zoe Rose
• bebo.com - Profile from Zoe Rose.
• bebo.com - Profile from Zoe Rose

aaaaand, my personal favourite, result number one:

• Zoe Rose - Actress. World Sex Tour 23: England. Visit IMDn for photos, filmography...
  

That's right. A porn star stole my name. 

You have to get to the third page before 'Zoe Rose' meaning me comes up at all - and the reference is way out of date. While it's nice to have some privacy, there is something cringeworthy about being outranked by a dress. 

So let's disect. My unique identifier is muddled up with: 

• People who have part of my name - google can't differentiate between 'Rose' as middle name and 'Rose' as surname
• Inadvertent co-location of 'Zoe' and 'Rose', due to rose being a proper noun as well as a name
• People who legitimately have the same name as me (fair enough)
• Entities that aren't people at all (the dress)
• A porn star who I really, really wish had picked a different pseudonym

I can't think of a solution to this one. But I really hope someone else does - and soon.