Googling oneself

Have you ever Googled yourself? What am I saying? Of course you have. I know how egotistical you really are.

There's something strange about Googling oneself (or, doing a search for your own name on Google). How much information is out there about me? But who are all those other Lauras out there?

Sometimes I wonder if anybody is out there looking for me, and coming across Laura the Lawyer, or Laura the Systems Manager, and thinking that they've found me. Am I Laura the Professor? Could be! You'll never know. Did my namesake's accomplishments fulfill their desire to learn more about me?

And at the same time, I'll never know who those other Lauras are either. My name is pretty common, but I've never come across anyone else with my first and last names.

Its also strange to come across the real me on a search results page for random things. Yes, that's my post on that listserv, and look over there...my sister used my full name on her blog and it came up on a search. But there's something pretty pathetic about the fact that the real me only appeared 3 times over 18 pages of search results.

We strive for anonymity, but at the same time yearn for popularity.