Googling

Articles

David Aurisano

Googling
July 5, 2003

Lately I've been paranoid about what information about me is "out there" on the internet or in public records, or whereever, and I decided to undertake a little project.

It all started when a friend of mine, a volunteer where I work, told me that I could find out anyone's age if I typed their name on Yahoo! We had fun that night typing in other staff member's names and finding out how old they are. Another thing I found was that I could find out anyone's public records for a mere ten something dollars, and hire a "location expert" -probably a private eye- for about sixty buckaroos to find out more extensive information. But it got me to thinking, if I could find out their ages, anyone could go on the internet and find out mine.

I tried the yahoo search on myself, and it worked (got the right age and everything!). I also decidecd to go on the famous search engine Google, type in my name, and see what they had on me (nothing too racy, now). Also some other stuff. Of course, my articles here were available. Out of everything about or by me available to the public, they by far make the best reading. Unfortunately, only two of the articles (probably the best of them) actually made it to Google. Fortunatley, the rest are nestled away at the magazine website for your reading pleasure.

Another thing that came up was my short stint as His Excellency, the Ambassador of the Principality of Andorra (a small, very small, country nestled in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. It's so small it usually doesn't show up on a map.)for a Model United Nations on the internet. And so why did I choose Andorra, of all the countries in the world, to represent in the fake UN? Well, the United States was already taken, of course. I didn't know much about Andorra, so I thought I'd give it a go.

And apparently, I have something to do with some sort of Texas Board of Public Accountants, but I'm not sure if I'm actually serving on the board and didn't know it, or if I issued some advisory statement. I'm assuming (hoping) it was an advisory statement.

Another thing I learned from Googling myself? There's only one me. I know it sounds cliche, but no one else in the country even has the same name. That's a good thing, I guess.

It's a little scary and a bit exciting to see that there's that much information about people in general on the internet, especially on Google. Apparently, at least according to my friend the psychiatry student, googling prospective dates is a common practice at her school. So pepole are googling each other, although maybe not enough for "google" as a verb to become a new entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. Still, I wouldn't advise putting anything too revealing out there.

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About the author: David Aurisano is a graduate student at the University of Houston. Email David: daurisano@hotmail.com

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