Do you Google yourself?

Or better yet, do you have a Google Alert set up for your name to see when it comes up?

I do. Of course, anybody who posts stuff online, like reviews or articles or whatever, should probably do this just to see where their work is showing up (Amazon reviews show up on a *lot* of Amazon partner sites, for example). But increasingly, "regular" people are doing this as well. One of the pieces of advice given to those starting a relationship (advice especially given to women, though it's good for both parties) is to "Google the guy" before doing anything more than meeting for coffee (or even before *that*!).

Mashable has an article about this, "Majority of Adults Now Google Themselves [STUDY]". Most of the article is about online privacy, which is surprising given the headline. However, it does say that "57% of adults have used search engines to find information about themselves online," which doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm surprised it's not more (though the article does say that this percentage is increasing).

So what about you? Do you check yourself out online? If you have an unusual name, like Joe Shlabotnik, it's probably easier. My name? "David Roy" doesn't show anything about me for at least 5 pages. "Dave Roy" is right there on the front page.

That will probably change when I become rich and famous.

I think it's time for a poll.