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Have You Googled Yourself…Lately?
By Reshma Kumar at December 17, 2007 0 CommentsWe are all guilty of it. Many of us have Googled ourselves at some point or the other. Employers are Googling candidates as part of their standard background check on potential hires. And, according to a research study (PDF) by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 47 percent of Internet users have searched for themselves through Google, up from 22 percent in 2002. Younger users tend to self-search more and men and women search equally for info on themselves. Three percent search regularly, 22% once in awhile, and 74% once or twice.
It is not surprising that there would be a ton of information on people considering the onslaught of Web 2.0 tools that enable and facilitate user generated content and overall information sharing such as blogs, vblogs, photo blogs, photo sharing sites, videos, social networks, lifecasting sites like Twitter, etc. Eighty-two percent of adult online users maintain a public profile compared to 77% of teens. Sixty percent of internet users are not worried about how much information is available about them online but most people are aware of their digital footprint especially those with the highest educational levels. Most people search for the contact information of others online and 7% of those who have searched for information on key people in their lives do so regularly.
