Have You Ever Googled? from the December 2001 newsletter

by Rob ZornHave you ever googled your name? "Googling yourself" was a reasonably common Internet fad a few months ago, and it can be quite an interesting activity, depending on who else in the world has your name.

To google your name, head on over to the Google search engine and enter your name. Enclose your name in quote marks so that Google will search on your whole name as a phrase rather than on your first name and last name separately. Google will return you with a list of all the instances of that name that it find on the Internet. You can click those separate links to get the full story on each one. It's a great way to get an overview of your own online activity, but the amusing aspect comes in when it reports about things other people with your name have been doing online. I found that I came sixth in some American tractor pulling contest (under the category of "Super Farm Tractors."). To my delight I am also a Dutch singing performer with a string of released CDs under my belt. I also saw pictures of a beautiful prize-winning horse I apparently own in Holland. I am a children's doctor in Poland, Ohio, and I seem to have done a whole lot of things in Germany that I am unable to read about, unfortunately.

Googling is a harmless diversion, and who knows what it might end up leading to? You might be more famous than you think!