Vanity Searches
I was bored, it was 2am in the morning. So what did I do? I did a vanity search in Google. Some amazing things can be found on the web about me.
Search my “firstname middlename lastname”:
Find two articles I wrote for my junior college’s arts e-zine. A few quick clicks would also bring you to a selection of some poetry I wrote for them.
Search “firstname lastname”:
Too many irrelevant results. Happens when your name is relatively common and someone semi-famous happens to share it.
Search “firstname lastname” + formerhighschool:
Nothing. Thankfully, I think.
Search “firstname lastname” + mychurchinSingapore:
A bulletin with me as Worship Leader for the Youth Service pops up! Ha, and this is from 2002. Strangely enough, no other church bulletins pop up. Not even ones with articles I wrote. How sad!
Search firstname lastname + formerjuniorcollege:
Brings you to an Academic Prize Winners page with my name under Scholastic Merit Awards (Arts). Darn, didn’t do well enough to warrant a mugshot on the page! (Which is good, because I hate the mugshot that they used in the yearbook anyway.)
Search “firstname lastname” + uni:
A now-dead blog we set up for one of our tutorial a long time ago. Interesting read. Some random posts I made that I don’t even remember.
Search “firstname lastname” + exchangeuni:
Blog of my former small group (cell group) while I was there.
Search firstname + livejournal:
Here! Which isn’t too surprising since my username is my first name
Search “firstname lastname” + livejournal:
Tutorial blog again. But also my profile which has a link back here.
Well, applying what I learnt in the Archives, this can be interesting in so many ways. Because I used my name with various institutions I have been in, I got these results. It’s interesting to compare that with research in the archives because that’s what you’re doing as well, you’re looking at how institutions remember a person (or a people).
For me, this is somewhat scary in the sense that someone with a little bit of information about me would be able to find such a wealth of material. Someone armed with my resume, for instance, would potentially have all this information at their finger tips. I think the last search is the one that scares me most. Although I’ve avoided at all costs to reveal my lastname on lj, it seems that even that doesn’t help. We had to use our names in our tutorial blog and now that has left its mark.
Okay, now I actually got to go get started on that essay about my work in the Archives. Too bad blogging doesn't count as legitamate work! (Four days of being sick and now I have a mountain of work to do.)
But try your hand at searching your name in Google, tell me what you find.
Search my “firstname middlename lastname”:
Find two articles I wrote for my junior college’s arts e-zine. A few quick clicks would also bring you to a selection of some poetry I wrote for them.
Search “firstname lastname”:
Too many irrelevant results. Happens when your name is relatively common and someone semi-famous happens to share it.
Search “firstname lastname” + formerhighschool:
Nothing. Thankfully, I think.
Search “firstname lastname” + mychurchinSingapore:
A bulletin with me as Worship Leader for the Youth Service pops up! Ha, and this is from 2002. Strangely enough, no other church bulletins pop up. Not even ones with articles I wrote. How sad!
Search firstname lastname + formerjuniorcollege:
Brings you to an Academic Prize Winners page with my name under Scholastic Merit Awards (Arts). Darn, didn’t do well enough to warrant a mugshot on the page! (Which is good, because I hate the mugshot that they used in the yearbook anyway.)
Search “firstname lastname” + uni:
A now-dead blog we set up for one of our tutorial a long time ago. Interesting read. Some random posts I made that I don’t even remember.
Search “firstname lastname” + exchangeuni:
Blog of my former small group (cell group) while I was there.
Search firstname + livejournal:
Here! Which isn’t too surprising since my username is my first name
Search “firstname lastname” + livejournal:
Tutorial blog again. But also my profile which has a link back here.
Well, applying what I learnt in the Archives, this can be interesting in so many ways. Because I used my name with various institutions I have been in, I got these results. It’s interesting to compare that with research in the archives because that’s what you’re doing as well, you’re looking at how institutions remember a person (or a people).
For me, this is somewhat scary in the sense that someone with a little bit of information about me would be able to find such a wealth of material. Someone armed with my resume, for instance, would potentially have all this information at their finger tips. I think the last search is the one that scares me most. Although I’ve avoided at all costs to reveal my lastname on lj, it seems that even that doesn’t help. We had to use our names in our tutorial blog and now that has left its mark.
Okay, now I actually got to go get started on that essay about my work in the Archives. Too bad blogging doesn't count as legitamate work! (Four days of being sick and now I have a mountain of work to do.)
But try your hand at searching your name in Google, tell me what you find.