Dude, I Googled my name, and it was the 7th one listed

Everything else
1

My last name is actually a fairly common one, as is my first name. Nevertheless, I’m always curious to see if I’ll show up somewhere on Google. Only recently, the only way I could bring myself up was “Tom McNamara” “PC Gamer,” which only returned my little Geoshitties page, http://www.geocities.com/stonedonkies. All other results were some other “Tom McNamara.” But last night, I Googled just my name, and there was my Geoshitties page at #7. :shock:

I was under the impression that Google worked by reverse linkage. The more sites that linked to your page, the higher up it would be in the results listings. I can’t imagine how this happened. Is it just a burp of some kind? It gets like a handful of hits a week, too.

2

My blog is the number one match for my name, amusingly.

3

Wouldn’t want to confuse you with super-nerd Jason McCullough.

4

It’s called “ego-surfing.”

— Alan

5

I always knew it as “vanity surfing”. And yes, I do it too. and my real name also used to come out on top for the longets time. Alas, it has been supplanted this past year.

6

Really, Tom? Gosh, that’s nice. I’m the first hit for my name. Also the second, fourth, fifth, etc, etc.

:D

7

Same here. Most all my names are just various archives to a couple posts I made to linux-kernel.

8

Alas, my doppelganger is a 50-something-year-old British professor who also happens to be one of the world’s foremost experts on cryptography. Quite published, too.

I don’t come up until the sixth link, where my Mobygames rap sheet makes an appearance. :cry:

9

Whoah. The 2nd main link for my real name is for 2 reader reviews I put up on Gamespot in 1997 and 1998.

10

Wow, I’m 3 pages down the list for my name.

11

Like John Malkovich, Bobby Fischer and Ernest Hemingway, my name is part of a film title, so that always comes up first if I Google myself. I haven’t seen it yet, despite such quotes as, “In his latest film, Albert Woo achieves a mythical status - becoming a signifier for the contemporary Asian man,” and “As we hear how contemporary men define themselves, the enigma of Albert Woo begins to break down.” The last thing I want to know is how I break down. :)

12

My name is rare - nonetheless I found some baseball player with my name in google. I was pretty surprised actually.

13

14

Yeah, that has to suck, Matt. Not one, but TWO assholes on TV with your name.

15

Looks like I came up second, first (which also comes up a lot) is apparently a member of parliament.

Curious to see how the search results change when you put your name in double-quotes (thus search the exact phrase rather than each word).

— Alan

16

I’ve got the first five links of my own name (Nate Timperley) on google… most linking to stuff I wrote for gamespy, one linking to a list of moo3 beta test winners (eek).

Also got the first listing of Nathan Timperley as a lanparty attendee.

17

i come up as the second link. back when i had my web page running, searching for my name brought up pages and pages of links.

18

I am in a constant battle with CJ Jimmy Pavloff’s Club Zone for the top “Pavloff” spot.

19

Hm, the majority of exact-phrase google matches for my name (“Laurence Brothers”) are in fact references to me one way or another with a few silly exceptions, like those various brothers who are named Laurence, some motocross racer, and a few random others, but then my name is somewhat less common than you’d think.

(pause to wait for obligatory Tom Chick praise of my name :roll: )