Saturday, July 12, 2008

Googlbation

Yeah, you know you do it. 

You put your name into Google to see what comes up. 

If you're an unlucky soul with a name like Bob Jones, you're kind of screwed. Crustodio and I are both blessed with unusual last names, so we can actually find things about ourselves. I actually have a lot of results, which fall into one of the following categories:

  • Social networking: tons of these from Linked-In, Friendster, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
  • Designed by: When I was doing a lot of freelance web design, I always put "Designed by Pete..." at the bottom of the pages.
  • Music-related: links to old reviews, articles and bookings. These are my favorite. And occasionally, I find something new. Like yesterday, for example!
This review from last year of the 1991 House Levelers album (my first band), was actually very insightful and a lot of fun to read. And, unusually, the writer singled out my songs instead of Grayson's. That never happens - he has such a great, soulful voice that people usually pass over my sub-Gordon Gano yowl.

I like the term "kitschy cool" - could it be that my whiny and weird pop songs are old enough now that they're cool and cult-y, instead of disappointing and annoying? Hmm, well maybe in another 10 years. In any case, thanks, DaSLOB.
Googlbation: successful!

3 comments:

Lisa said...

My name is really common. On the Web, people trying to find me will often stumble upon a much more prolific writer who also has my name.

In high school having a common name worked to my advantage. One year the computer system crashed and they couldn't tell which one of us same-name people had been skipping school all year. So we all got a clean slate. Ha.

Another way to find information about yourself- or information about anyone- online is to Google an email address or a phone number. It brings up a lot of unexpected items that won't come up when you Google a name, like forum posts.

Or in my case, it's how I found out that an ex-boyfriend had an ad posted on an escort services website.

Pete Best said...

Now I'm panicking.

Lisa said...

No kidding... I cleaned up all of the erroneous stuff tied to my email a long, long time ago, ha.