Ego Surfing

We all do it. Whether we admit it or not, most of us have, at one time or another, typed our names into Google just to see what comes up. I used to do this fairly often, when I worked at IGN and spent huge amounts of time in front of the computer.

I tried it today, mainly to see how quickly Google had cataloged--if at all--any of the newly redesigned pages on our deckled edge site (which, I'm warning you, is largely incomplete at this time). In fact, several pages in I did find a listing for Rob's pages on the site. However, I also found out that there is a Sarah Stevenson, British Taekwondo Champion, and a Sarah Stevenson, Canadian Sculptor. My outdated Suite101.com profile also appeared, all on the first page of results.

I decided to see what happened if I typed in my maiden name, in case somebody from my former unmarried life goes looking for me (I just added Sarah Baig to my Meta Keywords today for the deckled edge) and, lo and behold, my IGN fame came back to haunt me. The first two items to pop up were Weird Wild Web articles: the Imaginary Web Page review and the SUV Poseur page review. Yeeks! I also discovered that there is a Sister Sarah Baig (not me!) at the South Bay Islamic Association in San Jose. You'll also see me (the real me) on the page of Heuristic Squelch past editors and on various Welsh-related websites (again, actually me) before the list degenerates into random other Sarahs and Baigs. Fascinating!