s/o googling yourself

[LoveTrains]

So I googled myself because a) I hadn't in a while and b) we were talking about it in the unpopular opinions thread.

Imagine my horror when the first hit is not me, but someone else with the same name as me. It's her twitter account, and her name is sexi_firstname_201. And her twitter feed is full of ridiculous and unprofessional material.

Please tell me that people will know that its not me when they google me - right?! right?!

ETA: And then there are two pinterest accounts - neither of which are mine because I don't have a pinterest account.

[ESF]

LOL!

Fwiw, I think your name is one that is not so unusual that nearly everyone would assume there are more than one. Also I think most people know that there's a lot of false hits on google. Usually if you google someone, you have an inkling of info about them and can use that to make educated guesses.

[Deleted]

You will feel better when I tweet you the first hit on my name search.

I really hope the job I just applied for doesn't think this is me. :S

[chia]

When I google myself, it's all me, me, me. Everything on the first two pages is all related to me, and the first several pictures are of me. I guess I can't hide!

[Chirp]

I share a name with a female sex offender. I'm 10 pages in on google and google images and everything is about her and the pics are all her mug shot, news stills and court pics. I haven't seen a single thing about myself.

[dr.girlfriend]

There's someone with my same name and degree who sees patients in NYC. Some patient of hers decided my email was hers, and sends me late-night semi-suicidal rants. When I tell her she has the wrong email, she's always like, "F*ck you!" I forward them to her actual therapist without telling her I'm doing so.

[cjeanette]

My married and maiden names are common enough that I don't show up for pages. There are all types with my name out there.

[Deleted]

Thankfully, my married name is pretty common and I'm hard to fine. My maiden name shows some famous Dr. instead, woot.

[winnied]

My maiden and married names are uncommon. With my maiden name, I was the only person to come up. With my married name, it's me and some Canadian 17 year old Twitter fanatic.

[Deleted]

I am having trouble not thinking of this:

[catbus]

I had the same question a few days ago. My name is not common (since I took H's last name; my maiden name was, like, top 10 common). There is one other person I easily find with my name, and she's (forgive me) really trashy looking. Unfortunately, she appears to be my approximate age and is also blond, so if someone weren't paying close attention they could totally assume she is me. She also has (or had, it's been a while) a trashy MySpace page. Ick, ick, ick.

I also get nervous that potential employers are Googling me and then not reviewing the information judiciously. Like, if you pay a decent amount of attention you should be able to deduce that there are two people with this name, but who knows whether they are putting that much effort into it. :-( I have legitimately wondered if this is why I haven't scored interviews for positions for which I am an ideal match.

[smiley]

My married name is common. DH's cousin and I share the same name (her first name is spelled different though).

My maiden name is uncommon. I was the first person to come up on google. There was also a website with my current city listed and 2 previous cities I have lived in as well as associated people. It is creepy how much is available online.

[explorer2001]

My name it common enough. I get a bunch of doctors, attorneys, and PhDs in the first few pages, but not me which is fine. Apparently people with my name are high achieving and mostly responsible with internet use. The pages are linked in, professor's class pages, attorney's firm pages, etc. Nothing sorted.

[ellipses84]

There are only two other people in the US with my married name and they are older and live on the other side of the country. My links come up before theirs, but we are all on the first page. My maiden name is equally uncommon. I went and cleaned up my online profile the other day to make it more anonymous since I'm job hunting. I guess it is good that I can control it. There is finally a pro for you-neek names, you're less likely to get mistaken for a sex offender online!

[rikki]

I am pretty sure that I am the only person with both my maiden and former married name. The only hits are LinkedIn, Facebook (blocked to everyone but friends), some work stuff, and my middle school swim team photo. There used to be some photos of me at a charity event and a non-profit board I was on, but they seemed to have fallen off.

[nessness]

There was a massage parlor with my first name and maiden name that was in the news for being investigated for prostitution. Hopefully anyone who googled me was smart enough to figure out that I am not a business in Michigan.

[open24hours]

I share a name with someone who enjoys putting naked pictures of herself on her public Facebook page. I am forever doomed to have a Facebook profile with enough identifying information about myself so that an intelligent person should be able to figure out that the naked lady is not me.

[Deleted]

Mine is apparently common, but the first hit IS me.

Some of the twitter and FB accounts from teens with my name make me

[awkwardpenguin]

I'm the only person with my name. Hits are all me. I had an interviewee reference my "web development skills" in an interview thinking she was complimenting me. I just found it creepy since I left web development in 2007 and never intend to touch a database again.

For the career changing reason, one of my top hits is a professional website featuring my work in my new field. If you Google me, you correctly find out I'm a Type A crazy person (who used to be a web developer, knows Mindy Kaling, is a Democrat, runs slowly and bikes decently, and loves cupcakes).

[Deleted]

I have a very common name so there's a lot the shows up. I can be found on the first page. But I include all that on my resume anyway...

[niq]

Mar 28, 2013 9:28:58 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

So I googled myself because a) I hadn't in a while and b) we were talking about it in the unpopular opinions thread.

Imagine my horror when the first hit is not me, but someone else with the same name as me. It's her twitter account, and her name is sexi_firstname_201. And her twitter feed is full of ridiculous and unprofessional material.

Please tell me that people will know that its not me when they google me - right?! right?!

ETA: And then there are two pinterest accounts - neither of which are mine because I don't have a pinterest account.

What happens if you google your name + linkedin?

[vtdiamond]

I have a fairly unusual name but it surprisingly doesn't come up for a few pages on google. My soon to be married name doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

[greekypie]

Unrelated:

DH and I use the term "googling" yourself as a euphemism for masturbation. Carry on.

[heygrey]

Mar 28, 2013 19:09:48 GMT -5 greekypie said:

Unrelated:

DH and I use the term "googling" yourself as a euphemism for masturbation. Carry on.

30 Rock! 


i'm low on the second page - once for h's work and once highlighting my gardening prowess (oh yeah, i won a competition for edible gardening). shortly thereafter google starts grasping at straws for hits. the first page is filled with nonsense from younger teenager girls... remind me to commend my mom on being ahead of the trend. my first name was unheard of when i was born, but it picked up in popularity about the time i turned 13. yay? 

[anna7602]

Mar 28, 2013 11:31:12 GMT -5 chia said:

When I google myself, it's all me, me, me. Everything on the first two pages is all related to me, and the first several pictures are of me. I guess I can't hide!

This is the same for me. I'm actually happy about it since I work for myself. I like that any potential clients who google me can see what work I've already done and what events I have participated in professionally.

[anna7602]

Ok, this one is strange. When I google my maiden name, which I haven't used in over 10 years, all kinds of stuff about the actual me comes up (in addition to links regarding completely separate people with the same name)- including my last address in NY thanks to some site called peekyou.com.

Look at peekyou.com forward slash your first name and last name separate by an underscore.

[Deleted]

Mar 28, 2013 19:09:48 GMT -5 greekypie said:

Unrelated:

DH and I use the term "googling" yourself as a euphemism for masturbation. Carry on.

That's what the video I posted is about!

[Awkward]

Googling my full first name returns nothing about me. Most of the hits are genealogy website pages and obituaries. There is also a pinterest account that is not mine.

Googling the nickname I use (but not on my resume) brings up my linked in page on the first page of results. I need to change that to my full name. My (empty) google+ and houzz accounts come up on the second page. There is someone with my name who has a hobby similar to one I did in college, to the point where I had someone approach me and ask if it was me posting on forums using my first and last names. Image searching has pictures of me as in the first dozen results.

[Deleted]

Mar 29, 2013 5:27:11 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Look at peekyou.com forward slash your first name and last name separate by an underscore.

When I did this, nothing came up with my married name, using both my legal first name and my nickname. There is one other person in my state with my maiden name -first and last.