I just googled myself for the first time in a long time. The following results came up:
* A profile on Amazon.com for a guy who posts extremely long reviews of Dungeons & Dragons books from Madison, WI
* My resume, circa the year 2000, at a long-neglected Argonne National Lab page
* My LinkedIn page--no, wait, it's Jeff Hershberger of Madison, WI. Aaaaargh
* A Facebook page for some other Jeff Hershberger (I'm not on Facebook)
* Some other junk
* My profile on the Cleveland Weblogger Meetup Group
* A profile for a photographer on photo.net, whose home page is listed as shagfinger.com (which, thank god, is inactive)
* A Classmates.com profile for Jeff Hershberger of Stevens Point, WI
Back in the late '90s and early 2000s, I always came up first in google searches. Having your name in a .gov page can have that effect. Not any more. It's an unusual name, but I didn't even have it to myself in the scientific literature. There was a rather prolific biologist that always came up when people searched for my articles.
This is harder than it sounded. Think I'll email that guy in Madison.
UPDATE: I just claimed a custom LinkedIn public profile page. So, guy in Madison, if you follow the old link in my email dotsig, it's broken.
I'm on Facebook only because there's a guy already on there with whom I share a very uncommon name. My Facebook page basically has my age, sex and minimal biographical information so people who are looking for me don't get confused by the other dude. I have no idea what I would do with a Facebook page otherwise. Come to think of it, I have a... what's that other social networking site... Friendsomething... not Friendster. I'll think of it. Oh, hell (goes to look it up) Can't find it. You know. The one where everyone has a 'friend' named Tom who's a complete stranger. That one. All I can think of is Facebook. Thought pollution. If I can't even find my way to the social network site I guess I'm not much of a networker. MYSPACE!! That's it. I have that too for some reason I've forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI was on myspace for a while, but I quit. You and a few other family members were there, but I hear sis deleted her page.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of myspace is, let's face it, pretty juvenile. I didn't feel connected to anyone. It was like farting in a hurricane, all sound and fury without substance. Adding my own eccentricity to the parade of poseurs seemed irrelevant.
It's funny. Years ago people were saying that the Internet would reduce prejudice because online 'everyone is equal and anonymous.' My Space users appear to prefer to be as visible, expressive and public as possible. I'm not nearly interesting enough for that. I'd rather sit here and stare at my new aquarium snail and see if he comes out of his shell.
ReplyDelete