Twice As Many People Google'd Themselves Last Year

by Rob Walker | December 17, 2007 at 06:37 am

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I've googled myself, but as the article points out many people require an online 'persona' for their job. I know I do (I use facebook and chat programs regularly as part of my work, feel free to add me!) and have mostly used the self-googling to find articles and such that I may want to show someone.

I find it interesting that only four per cent of users said they found inaccurate information on themselves, that's a pretty tiny percentage.

Few internet users say they Google themselves regularly — about three-quarters of self-searchers say they have done so only once or twice. And most who have done so consider what they find accurate. Only four per cent of internet users said embarrassing or inaccurate information online resulted in a bad experience.

Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to restrict who can see their profiles at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace, contrary to conventional wisdom.

"Teens are more comfortable with the applications in some ways, (but) I also think they have their parents and teachers telling them to be very careful about what they post and who they share it with," Madden said.

The telephone survey of 1,623 internet users was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 30 last year and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.