You: P.I.? Or Ego-Maniac?

A new survey of over 1600 internet users found that nearly 50% admit to googling themselves. I’m surprised, frankly. The first time I ever used a search engine, it was with my own name(after all, we’ve gotta check up on where we’ve been sometimes, right?) It’s strange to think that with this vast amount of info(the neet) right at our fingertips, that some people have simply never written in the edit box “insert your name here”. Strange, but according to this survey, true!

The study found that those in a higher income bracket, and those over 50, were more likely to have checked their name in a search engine. Part of the reasoning is the same as why I routinely google my name: my job requires a certain amount of web presence. And with my job, the more web presence, the better!

However, a significant amount of respondants also said they’d used search engines with the names of other acquaintances. Most were to find old friends who were out of touch, but many were googling the names of their significant others. A little Magnum P.I. in all of us, eh?

I truly, truly believe there is a certain amount of narcissism within all of us. If not, MySpace and Facebook wouldn’t be nearly as popular. On line communities, as well as finding newspaper reports, sports scores, etc. with our names are part of the reason why we, as a country, like to have a way we can all be a little famous. Not everyone can have their own .com(unless they’re willing to pay for it), but between the multitudes of on-line communities, we can all feel like rock stars when we google our own names.

So, c’mon, remaining 53% of American net users-check yourself out! Then we egomaniacs will feel in better company!