“My name is Rachel Blom and I regularly Google myself.”
There, I’ve said it.
Recent research from PEW shows I’m not the only one. Not that I ever thought I was, but it’s always comforting to know. Here are some interesting facts about people who Google themselves:
What’s interesting is that there’s a relationship between income, education, age and Googling yourself. That doesn’t surprise me though, if I look at the reasons why I Google myself, this has little to do with vanity and more with making sure I have a professional online presence. Obviously this matters more for people with high careers than for others.
What is also interesting, is that Googling yourself isn’t something that’s increasing. This figure shows that it’s been pretty constant over the last few years:
So it’s time to get brutally honest here:
How often do you Google yourself?
[via Pew Research]
Darryl Schoeman says
My name is Darryl Schoeman. And I have Googled myself.
Wow!!! What a release 🙂
But seriously, if one is trying to develop a professional online presence, searching for yourself is vital. I did this once and found I was on an “influence metric site” other than Klout where they simply mined my data and added me to their database. I had the opportunity of claiming my profile so I did. I don’t use them, but at least someone else can’t steal me 😉
Rachel Blom says
Thanks for sharing Darryl, always glad to know I’m not the only one 🙂 You’re right, especially when your online presence matters professionally, you should google yourself to see what pops up. I once deleted some comments I made on a forum that kept popping up and that were completely irrelevant. Always good to know…
Steven Gliebe says
I do that every now and then to see what Google picks up on. I just noticed Google somehow associates results with a name even if that name is not mentioned a single time? It lists the churchthemes.com homepage as #4 for my name but my name is not mentioned on the homepage. I guess there’s more at play than keywords in content.
Nobody really knows how Google works, eh?
Rachel Blom says
That’s so true. It’s why I deleted the comments I made on a forum a year or so ago, they kept popping up in the top 5 results and they were completely unimportant…