The dangers of googling

[mrblanche]

Have you googled your own name? I have. I find a number of references to cruise reviews, a few articles, a poem that keeps getting posted all over without my permission, and another guy who points out that HE is not the Mike Blanche who is a truck driver, or who writes cruise reviews, or who writes sappy pet poetry.

We were going through a list of the names of some of our friends recently, and we found that a guy that my wife dated before me is now one of the top 20 non-Arab Muslim scholars in the world. And a nut job to boot.

How about you?

 

[katiemae1277]

luckily I am the only one in the whole country with my name, so I'm safe from being credited with crazy things

 

[white cat lover]

I'm no one.

 

[monaxlisa]

Im glad Im not the only one that doesnt have any google results

 

[jugen]

Nothing for me either..

 

[carolpetunia]

The first time I googled myself, I found my own obituary.

 

[stacyd1987]

Nope, nothing here besides someone else who's apparently a lesser known movie writer and co-producer.

 

[laureen227]

well, i had some theatre credits show up, plus my webpage at school... but that's it!

 

[mews2much]

I found something that asked a question about a Internet Virus. I also found somethging with my Screen Name and real Name.

 

[fwan]

Yes i am on google, because a memeber posted my real name and now when i go on it, it refers me to TCS. There are plenty of others with my name but this is the only one. In fact a few of my long lost friends were asking me a few weeks ago.. "hey are you a member of the cat site? because i was reading this girls posts and she sounds so much like you"

Not only that but when someone wants to track you down, they can find you on every single website. I had friend who ended up stalking me on myspace, facebook and TCS and i started to freak out.

 

[pookie-poo]

I searched my married name, (with and without my middle name) and only came up with one hit, from a guest book I signed back in June of 2000. I searched my maiden name (with and without my middle name) and came up with no hits. I'm still pretty anonymous.

I Googled "Pookie-poo" and it wasn't until page four that I found a link to a TCS post that I had made.

I Googled "Kellijojo" (a name that I've used on nurse boards) and was hit #1 and #2 on that page. I had asked a question back in 2004, about MRSA in a dog bite. Must be that the MRSA portion of the topic has kept it a hot subject.

 

[lillekat]

Well I've a fairly common name for Sweden. Good thing I live in Denmark.

 

[mrblanche]

Oddly enough, my family came to the U.S. from Denmark in about 1880. And we're going to be in Sweden in June, as guests of Volvo Trucks.

Everyone with my last name in the U.S. is related to me, as is everyone with my wife's maiden name related to her. Rather uncommon names.

 

[clixpix]

There are many people with my name, including a minor politician and a singer. I couldn't buy the domain with my name, I was way too late for that.

 

[mommysmeows]

Yes, gotta love google - I am beginning to hate it.

It's become my obsession, and my fear of being stalked. If you google your email, it will bring you up all over the internet, too. I really dislike that, even though I some times use it to my own advantage, lol.

 

[gailc]

Yep I've googled my name. One hit is on a local newspaper article I was interviewed for on Women and beer drinking. The others were mainly my court case with my neighbor when Sheba was killed. Oh I think there might be some garden stuff too.

 

[cata_mint]

I have one of the most common surnames in the world. In its most common spelling it has 64,000,000 hits on google. In direct contrast, my first name only has about 1000 hits, and of the first 10 hits 6 are about me, mostly old myspace/diaryland stuff. Trust my mother to have to be different.

That saddest thing is I can't even pronounce my surname properly!

 

[jcat]

Oddly enough, I discovered that I have a "Doppelgänger". There's a woman in Alaska with the same name (hers is her maiden name, while mine is my married name), D.O.B., and telephone number (different country and area codes, though). How weird is that?

My user name here is so common that it's a joke. Anybody who's tempted to spoof it seriously needs the help of a mental health professional.

I discovered that somebody actually did make a piteous attempt to do so, and I found it so pathetic, as they must be suffering from real feelings of inadequacy in order to try to "prove" themselves in that manner.

 

[weldrwomn]

My maiden name came up with only a handful of results that were only mine. Two were the result of a bicycle relay I did and the rest were mentions in a trade magazine because of my perfect attendance at school a couple of years back.

My married name came back with some other people (one of which is in the same state as me) and my mentions in the minutes for the tree committee. There was one link that associated me with my job, but there was no specific info, just the company that I work for.

 

[bnwalker2]

Mine comes back as mostly me... because of the animal rescue groups. A few high school athletes come up as well.