Now, I ask this because almost EVERYONE in my generation googles people. Especially before going on a date - laugh all you want, boys, I do not know a girl who DOESN'T do this. There's also a notion out there that potential employers will google job candidates.
People with overly common names have a luxury of being able to hide. I am NOT one of those people. If you google my first name and last name in quotation marks, you get me. All me. There are some people with my last name and a spelling variation of my first name. So people who can't spell my first name (and believe me, they are plentiful) who google me may think I am currently working as a computer science professor at Notre Dame.
So, about a year and a half ago, I was on the job interviewing circuit (I was with a different employer, where 75% of the company was on the job interviewing circuit). I had a job interview lined up at the behemoth itself (again, not my current company).
I figured at this company, getting Googled pre-interview was standard. Since my past is not speckled, I wasn't too concerned. However, the night before my second interview, I decided to check things out, just in case.
It was all me. I made the honor roll in high school; I went to dance camp. But WAIT.
Down at the bottom of the first (and pretty much only) page of results, there was a slightly, ahem, less than favorable listing about yours truly.
It was a guestbook entry on "Princess Sarah's Dreambook" (I do not know Princess Sarah personally). It said my name, spelled correctly. It said my screenname (yes, MY screenname, created over a decade ago on AOL - this was about ME). That was the extent of accurate information.
I will not go into full detail, however, to clarify - I do not now, nor have I ever, lived in Afghanistan. I do not operate the website http://www.dirtywh*re.com/ (replace the asterisk). AND, I would not say that my favorite movie is "Naughty Night Nurses 2 - it was so much better than the first" - I have not ever seen either movie so I could not fairly make such an assertion (maybe some of my readers could - no judgment).
(Editor's sidenote: Yes, I do know exactly who posted this. However, I do not wish to bestow any time, attention or energy on said individual/situation at this time.)
Do you know how much time and energy it takes to get something bad about you out of cyberspace??! First I had to email Ms. Sarah herself, only she hadn't logged into the site in about 8 years and her email didn't work. Then I had to contact the site operator and have them take this entry down. THEN I was told there was nothing I could do until Google updated it cache, which was periodic. Nevermind the fact that this existed out there for about 8 years - I am wondering how many dates/acquaintances/employers googled me and saw this and I'm wondering if of the above were ever influenced by this.
Moral of the story - maybe we can't judge a person by his or her google results, although I don't see the trend of googling pre-meetup to end any time soon.
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5 comments:
Jaime, I can add a (sort of) similar experience, so you are not alone.
A while ago (I can't remember how far back, but either the very end of high school or first year or two at U of I), I looked my name up on Google. It turns out that there have been several notable people with the name Thomas Rowley in history; it's more of a common name than I thought. It was the pen name of an English poet named Thomas Chatterton in the 1700s. Oddly, it was also the real name of a Vermont poet during the same period. There have also been some famous settlers in Canada and Australia with my name.
But, these people aside, the one that caught my attention was the one who shared my middle initial. Apparently, Thomas A. Rowley was a Union Brigadier General at the battle of Gettysburg. When I first discovered this several years ago, I thought it was really awesome. Several of my ancestors fought in the Civil War for the Union, and older members of my family have done lots of research on them. But, they never found this man, a high officer at one of the war's most important battles. I was intrigued, so I printed out pictures, and showed my family, who were all excited.
Everything was cool. That is, until some overly-curious researcher did a biography on my namesake. As it turns out, during the middle of the battle, Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Rowley was arrested by his own officers for drunkenness, disobedience, and negligence of command. He was later courtmartialed, but it was eventually overturned (probably out of pity). If you want to know more (and I sincerely hope you don't), the whole story of Thomas A. Rowley is chronicled in the book "Disgrace at Gettysburg: The Arrest and Court Martial of Brigadier General Thomas A. Rowley," which can be purchased online at http://www.amazon.com/Disgrace-Gettysburg-Martial-Brigadier-General/dp/0786423099/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218062078&sr=1-1.
No, I do not own this book, nor do I plan to ever see it.
Oh, and I also have an ironic story relating to your "Princess Sarah's Dreambook" scenario, but this isn't really the forum to tell it. :-)
He's right. 'Naughty Night Nurses 2' is soooooooo good.
Read this:
http://consumerist.com/364563/complaint-remover-gets-rid-of-negative-links-including-lolcats
It's relevant, and awesome :)
I'm confused about what Princess Sarah's Dreambook is. Are you saying that someone made a malicious post about you on that website? I didn't realize that cyberbullying goes back that far...that's horrible. (We talk about cyberbullying a lot in my school and in the classes I'm taking.)
On a happier note, you can not Google me, due to my foreign name. It's fantastic. If you do it the 'right' way, the only thing that comes up is my U of I Dean's list entry, my position at the Undergrad, and my current position. All very respectable. haha
Yes, I believe that is the technical term - I WAS cyberbullied. :-(
To clarify - Princess Sarah was some completely random person/website the 'bully' came across on the web, and he then put the information about me on her site.
I was cyberbullied and lived to the tell the tale. I should take to being a motivational speaker and tell my tale - I should get booked on the junior high and high school circuit. Any interest in hiring me for your school, piper?
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