I've been meaning to write about this topic for a while now, and today's news story on the front page of the Japan Times that Googleganger has been chosen as the Most Creative Word of the Year, gives me a lead in.
The American Dialect Society describes Googleganger as "A person who shows up when you google yourself." An activity commonly known as Vanity surfing or Ego Surfing.
I noticed that 10 of visitors to this blog on Dec 25th had arrived as a result of a search for Jon Allen, so I decided to do a bit of vanity surfing myself and I discovered I was the 5th result in the list. I've just repeated the experiment and I'm down to 11th in the list today. So, just to try and increase my Search Engine rating, here's what some of the other Jon Allens do:
Jon Allen The Close Up magician who "Creates astonishment, excitement and powerful memories."
Jon Allen A Singer from Winchester, England.
Jon Allen Professor of Psychiatry at the The Menninger Clinic in Kansas.
Jonathan O. Allen Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Dept at Arizona State University.
Jon Allen Perl Documentation expert.
John Allen Paulos Professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Jon Allen Canadian diplomat. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Israel since June 14, 2006.
Jon Allen A blogger who says "I’m an Artist and a Writer and a Musician with a healthily unhealthy obsession with music of almost all kinds." from Cambridge England.
Jon Allen Marine Laboratory Director at Bowdoin, undergraduate liberal arts institution in Brunswick, Maine.
And me: Jon Allen Blogger and Banking Application support programmer in Tokyo.
Luckily my googlegangers do not star in adult movies or have other unusual professions! Do you have a Googleganger and what do they do?
2 comments:
I have not done that exercise recently but once apon a time a Google search uncovered the unhealthy fact that I had died in 1908.
Unfortunately my rather more famous googleganger is a porn star, with many sites dedicated to her.
Sometimes I like the anonymity of my name but at times I have considered changing it to Petunia or Yolanda or something unusual. Westphalia? Lucretia? Or maybe just a symbol? I could be The Blogger Formerly Known as Jennifer Lee.
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