Are You Anybody if Your Name Doesn't Come Up On A Search Engine List?

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I had some time to kill, and, as a lark, I decided to do some searches on Google for anyone I could think of -- old friends, old girlfriends, family members, etc. It ws strange, but it seemed like everyone who came up "No matches found" had fallen off the earth and died. Can you find yourself?

 

[Angel]

I duno, but I just found out there's some chick in Sacramento with the exact same name as me. First, middle and last. Same spelling and everything.

 

[Starfish]

I am not findable. You can look, but you won't find me.

I've looked and not found myself.

The thing is, I am always right here, with myself. Does that make sense?

 

[Mensa]

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match

Real name or lit name? Did you try both?

 

[Quiet Smiles]

Can you find yourself?

Why yes I can, I'm right here! I can never seem to get away from myself - I'm just that way, I guess.

I also come up in a search engine search, but I won't say why.

 

[Silverlily]

Ok, this is what Kitten Eyes came up with...

"A petite brunette with a mouth made for blowjobs".

Suffice to say my real name is incredibly common.

 

[Angel]

I've also found out there is a rather large number of men on the internet named either Luigi or Giovanni who have the same last name as I do.



Oh, and there are some really hot ass men who live in Sicily who have websites.

 

[Mensa]

Say no more

Ok, this is what Kitten Eyes came up with...

"A petite brunette with a mouth made for blowjobs".

Suffice to say my real name is incredibly common.

I daresay that description is incredibly "common" as well!

 

[SimplySouthern]

Yep. In most search engines. Not that it makes me a somebody...just links me with some really wierd shit.

 

[Silverlily]

Re: Say no more (hard to talk with one's mouth full)

I daresay that description is incredibly "common" as well!

Bite me.

 

[cymbidia]

I guess i'm common, too!

Searched the web for "barbara [last name deleted from this Lit thread]".
Results 1 - 10 of about 19. Search took 0.16 seconds.

Google has 19 people listed with my exact first and last name. One of them is me. However, i get none coming back with my exact name including my middle name.

Interesting.

 

[Laurel]

Can you find yourself?

Nope. I am absolutely nowhere. I'm invisible.

 

[nasty]

I'm SURE I'll find my first name, Bart. That's see, Simpson, maybe. I'm not sure if he's popular enough, though. HMM...

 

[Cheyenne]

The link that was at Google to my name is gone now! I like it! There are several other people with my name that pop up though- that ought to throw off anyone who is looking for me.

Ever have someone do a search on you and then tell you they found you? The link that is gone was to a group I belong to. (Membership list is now on a password only basis to members.) One day at work while we waited for others to arrive for a meeting, our CIO asked me about this group that I belong to. It came out of the clear clue sky as far as I was concerned. But he said he found the info on the internet. Felt a little creepy to know he searched my name.

 

[cactiphile]

I duno, but I just found out there's some chick in Sacramento with the exact same name as me. First, middle and last. Same spelling and everything.

From a previous horrible experience at hospital I found out
there was someone with same first, middle and last name
AND the same date of birth, day/month/year.

Beat that

Cactiphile

 

[Dhalgren]

Typed in my name with quotes around it at Google and got one whole page of me...

Hmm..and here I thought I was a nobody.

 

[CelestialBody]

I exist

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Real name or lit name? Did you try both?

I tried both. "Dixon Carter Lee" only brought up a couple of Literotica pages. My real name brought up a whole host of surprising things. There were the expected TV episode cast lists and old reviews of shows I've done, but there were also mentions of me on web sites of name actors who've appeared in some of my plays and were listing credits, an old poem I had published 10 years ago, things like that.

When I looked up people like my parents, who've led long full lives, and got nothing, it felt very much like the world has passed them by. It's purely subjective, of course, but I was sad about everyone I tried who got no matches. It seemed unfair.

 

[cymbidia]

DCL, my parents are just ordinary people and there's no reason for them to be a computer database that's of relevant interest to a google search. My mother is valiantly trying to wrap her mind around the concept of email; she's having trouble with a computer keyboard because a typewriter requires much harder finger strokes and she's ending up with weird-looking messages cuz she cannot seem to hit the keys lightly. My father steadfastly refuses to have anything at all to do with a computer and thinks his intermittent windshield wipers and ATM use are pretty damn cool uses of this new technology.

Their lives have been spent in another time, as have the lives of your parents. There's a sharp dividing line between them and us in terms of technological advances. Such is the way of progress, though it seems shockingly sudden, and rather sad, yes, when one is so close to it. However, individual human value can't be summed up via a google search, now or ever, as well you know, especially the value of those who matter to us and to who we matter.

 

[Mischka]

I can cheat - on Lexis (a legal database) I can pull up official records on anyone. Had to do it for a few work-related purposes, and checked on myself while I was at it. I exist.

On the world wide web, it's a different story. My maiden name is uncommon, and I could find a few references to me. My married name, however, is apparently as common as dirt. On hotmail alone there are 13 of me.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Okay, really now, I'm talking about perception here, nothing else.

We're living in an Information Age where people attend theatres, watch movies, do business, communicate on a global basis, and even have sex all on the Internet. When a person is not represented in the digi-world your initial perception is that the community of ones and zeros has passed them by. Of course I'm not saying that this is in any way an actual accounting of a person's worth. My feelings of enui for my parent's cyber-invisibility are merely a symptom of my reliance upon my computer as a window to reality, and it's sobering to realize what a carnival-mirror shaped window it actually is. That's what I'm getting at.

 

[cymbidia]

Perception, yes.

I understood your slant and tried to respond from another perspective, one of emotional content. That is all. Another way to acknowledge net influence over the manner in which we view ourselves and those dear to us is by our emotional reaction to their presence in this milieu. I believe, too, that we're pretty much saying the same thing.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I understood your slant and tried to respond from another perspective, one of emotional content. That is all.
Another way to acknowledge net influence over the manner in which we view ourselves and those dear to us is by our emotional reaction to their presence in this milieu. I believe, too, that we're pretty much saying the same thing.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Now cut that out.

 

[OUTSIDER]

I already know that my name (first and second but not middle) appears on a ship.