Google Thyself

So it would seem that one of the greatest pieces of advice being shelled out to applicants of various types (job, internship, scholarship, university, etc) is to "google thyself". It seems that this is something that many admissions staff are doing as well as potential employers. Interesting stuff.

Have you ever googled yourself? I have. I probably google myself about once every 6 months, maybe a bit more often, just to see what the world is learning about me. I admit, one of the reasons that I have used a "pen name" for my blog is to make it a greater challenge for people who google me by my real name to find my writings. Not that I am in any way ashamed of what I write, I just figure it's best to leave a little bit of separation there.

In my most recent effort to google myself, I decided I should not only look into my real name, but also my pen-name. I was pleased to find that when I enter my pen-name RevDrum, I am in the top 8 items that are listed (and I haven't even by trying to maximize my Google exposure). Interestingly Google enquires whether I intended to type "rev drum" which with a space brings up a whole different list of items that are completely unrelated to me. I wish Google offered the option to say "nope, I know what I'm typing" but they don't, so life goes on without a sarcastic response to the computer.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I googled my real name (left out of this article for reasons mentioned above) that I didn't find "me" until 3 or 4 pages into the listings. Most of the listings are from quotes I have left somewhere on the Internet, in some cases quotes that I left years ago. I'm also listed on a few alumni lists in various places. Nothing really of substance, but then in Google's defense, I haven't really been doing anything of substance lately. I googled a few friends just to see what presence they have on the web. In some cases I found nothing and in other cases I discovered that my friends (or their children) are more famous than I thought!

I guess when it comes right down to it, I'm o.k. with my fairly anonymous existence in the world. Those that need to find me no where I am, those that want to find me usually can, and those that I am trying to avoid have hopefully been lost along the trail. When I do apply for jobs again, there's nothing tainting anyone's view of who I am or what I am about, that's good. I am sure that I will continue to google myself and others in the future, if nothing else so that the word google can remain a verb in the English language.