Google Yourself!

Have you Googled your name lately? A research firm made a survey on how many people are doing a Google Search on their names.

Go Ahead, Google Yourself
Have you Googled yourself lately? A survey made by Pew Internet and American Life Project said that there's a good chance you have.

The survey found that 47 percent of Internet users have searched for themselves through Google, an increase from 22 percent in 2002. Only 3 percent of those searching for themselves on Google claim to do it on a regular basis, with 22 percent claiming to search for themselves "every once in a while." A majority of 74 percent said they have searched for themselves once or twice.

Another interesting tidbit from the Pew survey is 53 percent of Internet users have Googled someone else’s name. Reasons include reconnecting with past friends (36 percent), searching about a coworker (19 percent) or a job applicant (11 percent), or even finding information about someone they are dating (9 percent).

Not included in the survey is the statistic that approximately 100 percent of those who read about the survey will Google their own name just to see what all the fuss is about. I of course did, and was both disappointed and relieved to find no information about myself.

While it's nice to know Google gawkers can't pull up anything on me if they tried, there's a strange emptiness to not having a digital footprint.

The Pew survey found that 60 percent of Internet users are not concerned with how much information is available online about them. A similar number of online adults (61 percent) claimed not to limit the amount of personal information they reveal online, while only 38 percent claimed to have taken extra precautions to limit that information.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/