I recently "googled" my son and saw what came up because I  was looking for a piece of writing he wrote awhile ago..  I decided to "google" myself after that and noticed that my website/blog came up first.

Do you know what comes up when you "google" yourself?  What comes up when you are  "googled?"  Are you happy with what comes  up about yourself?

that's a tough one. google now selects based on your own past searches. like it reaches into your computer and knows what you are looking for. there was a great ted talk about this recently.

eta: what i mean to say is that if you googled me and i google me, different things come up.
 

There are a lot of women with my first and last name out there. I know that one of them wrote a book or two about Britney Spears, and I have no interest in the girl beyond hoping that she's healthy and happy.

My photos from two trips that are on a local store website. Also a story from my church about when we went to New Orleans to work.

I wish nothing came up, but such is life.....

my dad..  i've done a lot to remove my name from the interwebs (just my online handles show up if you know what they are to search for them), but me and my father have the same name..  so if you put my name in, he comes up...  and it's all about his accomplishments as fire chief...

Just some work stuff and my facebook.  Although there was one link to someone's profile for something or other and one person on her friends list had a suggestive photo with my name listed.  More than likely the other person has my last name and uses my first for some sort of pseudonym/stage name type thing.

I've run into A LOT of people online that thought I was other Jocelyns when the other Jocelyns were involved with adult websites in one way or another. Yikes! 

so interesting!  Thank you for the info, Michele!  It's so interesting because you just  cannot control your  "image" on search engines...

Not much. Just my Twitter and Google profile, I think. Some photos of me under images.

It's unfortunate when you share a name, I would  think, for you could be judged by  someone who does not know it is not you under a search...  I find it a sort of spooky thing and have to remember that whatever we put on the internet will find us again!

right now I'm not. My ex (the stalker) has started a thread about me on a site I loathe. I know it's him because he has referenced several things that are symbolic of our past relationship. It doesn't say anything mean and no one has responded to it..but his persistence pisses me off. I'm still giving him the "consistent" treatment (which equates to not giving him any attention at all)--as someone suggested when I posted a thread about it sometime ago. But I wish he would learn this Saturn in Libra lesson and forget I even exist. I mean, for pete's sake..he used my first and last name on this garbage site.

don't forget to "google" your email addresses as well

Michele & Caroline- I just did an image search on my married name and the facebook profile picture of someone with my maiden name showed up. 

I don't like it one bit.

Josi- daaaaaaaang.  That's awful.

I come up only once, from an anti whaling petition I signed, like 8 years ago & that's exactly how I like it!!

@Annalisa... I find it spooky too... it's like loosing control of yourself or something!

exactly, Josi! It's such a drag, no?

My social sites, and other people's address (home) and other peoples resumes.

Good morning, McKenna! Nice to see you!  You are so  lucky that it is so limited in what comes up, McKenna!  Some people share names or have every little thing they did follow them! Now people google each other to check each other out!

as long as it's not porn stars, sunny, lol! Sounds okay, no?

There is a gynecologist with my name as well!

sounds like a drag, Jocelyn!  Wow.

No porn stars.. Phew! 

i am surprised by how many other women have my name. i always believed my name was mine. it's not. tres bizarre.

@Annalisa & as always nice to see you too!! Even though I am relatively lucky, I was really mad about myself coming up at ALL! From the first day I laid my fingers on a keyboard connected to the damn internet I have been so careful. I don't want to ever show up anywhere EVER!

Dang whales! & I was only trying to do them a favour!!

I'm the same, McKenna. I don't mind my site coming up because it is a sort of resume' and I put it there but anything else is just irritating! I try to  protect  myself as well!

Naked pics..............................just kidin...........

every time you type something into the search box on google, that seacrh is recorded and links to your IP adress..  that's how google (and all other search engines) keep track of what you've already looked at.  this information can tell ANYONE a lot of details about your life that you most likely don't want known..

to avoid this, i use:

https://startpage.com

i've posted this link on here before..  it is a Dutch search engine that uses the same software as google, but doesn't record your IP.  it won't prevent your name from coming up anywhere..  but it will keep a bit of anonymity to your searches. 

i also recommend going to database sites such as spokeo.com and removing any listings they may have.  i just pulled up the info they had on me, which included my phone number and even had a picture of my house!!! 

not cool interwebs..  not cool at all

ah McKenna... dear one... the world is watching you and the whales. that's OK. i don't think it's possible, anymore, to preserve a feeling of your information not being available. i'd say you've done a pretty good job if all that comes up is a love for whales.

Good advice, rantares...  It would take a scorp!

Quite bit on me comes up, besides my FB page, including lots of pieces and photos I've had published, though not most of the ones I'd like best to see online. That source (a semi-erudite mag in the literary field) went bust about 3yrs ago and their stuff is only referred to but mostly the pieces aren't up (or only one page) except a couple I gave out elsewhere.

I have permission to get them put up wherever I like, but have not yet got around to having a website - I really should do that!

My name's not that common but there are several quite well known people with my name or one almost exactly the same - an artist, and acedemic or two, and a singer, just for starters.

ElsaElsa comes first

a porn star has the name 'lana' with my last name, so she comes up

she's transsexual to boot

it's pretty disgusting (not the transsexual part, just the graphic sex images part)

i like it that way

i would NOT like myself coming up so easily

First I am an artist, second I am a neurosurgeon, third I am a real estate agent.  Can't find the real me.  Hiding in plain site,  oh neptune, oh neptune.  hahahahahaha

Now I am curious,  would it really be identity theft??????? 

PS  Several comments or letters I've written on/ to newspapers or political magazines pop up, which I'd rather they didn't, but unless I click on them they will gradually fall so far into the backlog of web pages that nobody will ever find them.... 

Those things I *would* like 'out there' I click on regularly hahaha.

Sadly the most important piece I've ever written shows up as a reference, but isn't online at all at all. It was in two parts for a monthly magazine and ran to c6000 words in total... and took a lot of research. You can buy it via the British Library website for £10!

@BP this neurosurgeon moniker is from Great Britian.   

Just my professional stuff as that's all I use my real name online for. Not FB or any other stuff. I didn't know google tracks your IP searches. People would have fun with that...lol...all boring for me.

Rantares, thank you!!! Those are great links.

Thansk Rantares , I have a new homepage now ! If you know the right names to google,then you'll find them lol Otherwise I come up on my exes family tree but I'm misspelled and there is no photo.Part of an online art thing I did is the prominet first result and another lady with the same name,slightly different spelling on the fiirst name but my (last)name is not exact common,so go figure.I never use my name,especially my full name online.I have people I don't want finding my stuff ,and I need my privacy,so I use several aliaises in addition to not using my real name :) I've actually always wanted to change my name to an old family name that is very common and would sound/suit me better than my maiden or married name sound and would afford me some privacy,lots red tape though :(

My first name can be spelled in two ways, and when I google my own name both versions come up. Mine is the less common version...

It really annoys me that google thinks I don't know how to spell my own damn name 

@Rantares- Thanks for the info, that's great to know!

If you google my name, my business site comes up first (after the sponsored results).  Then the rest is all about a very successful gal that works for NOAA.

I'm sure glad to see that nothing personal comes up... Of course the fact that my last name has been legally changed 4 times must help! ;-)

Annalisa -

This was really interesting!  I hadn't googled my name in a while. My book and my CD both came up, same as the last time I checked. Last time, all the healing sites I was affiliated with came up, including all the work I do with animals. And the only other person online with my name, interestingly enough, was a veterinarian doing advanced research for horses! (Thought that was cool.)

This time?  With the advent of Facebook, etc., there's a whole lot more people out there with my name!  4 in the UK alone, according to Google.  So now, maybe I'm more invisible than I used to be!

:-)

My real name produces pages and pages of doppelgangers.  I didn't know my name was so...pfft--COMMON! 

My nickname, though, pulls up a couple of different things that have emerged online over the years... 

My home page.