Have you ever Googled Yourself?
15th February 2009
The name of the search engine Google™ is one of the few brands in the world that has worked its way into the English language as a common usage term.
What I’m talking about is the verb “to google” which means to search for information using a search engine, not necessarily Google: and as such is now considered to be common usage in that the term lends itself to any search using any brand of search engine.
The best example of this concept is the verb “to hoover”. Meaning ‘to vacuum’ (carpets etc). People say they are “hovering” irrespective of the model of the vacuum cleaner they are using to clean their carpets. Other examples include the noun “kleenex” which refers historically to tissues manufactured by the company Kleenex: as in “Please pass me a Kleenex!” You get the idea no doubt. This blog post offers more examples.
Anyway, I seem to be going ‘off message’ for this post somewhat. What I am talking about here is the results you get when you ‘google’ your own name (note the use of the term as a verb there btw)
The results you get are quite interesting. If you’re like me and your first name is spelt a little out of the ordinary and you are very active on the web with your own website, social networking sites, profiles and posts etc: then you’ll probably get shed loads of results that occupy several pages before they dovetail off. If you’re not, then you may get limited, but perhaps still equally as interesting results.
What this technique does, is tell you what the web is recording about you. Some of this is what you may have posted, but more interestingly; it could be what other people have said about you.
A bloke named Jim Killeen went ahead and turned the idea of Google-ing your own name into a documentary entitled “Google Me” staring Jim Killeens imself. Here’s the trailer:
If you haven’t tried it before (I’m sure you have). Google yourself. After all there’s nothing on the tele.
Like this Post? Read Others Similar To It:
Tags: Blogging, Search Engines
Rob Abdul Says:
My name “Rob Abdul” for the last 3 years has been my brand name.
Google has 3,360,000 results for my name Rob Abdul.
I was so proud when my name appeared in Google suggest.
It may not sound like much but at least 60 to 80 people Google me a month.
It is nice for the Ego, I must admit!
11th August 2009