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“My Google is shrinking.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday’s New York Times Book Review had a review of “All the Sad Young Literary Men,” a new novel by Keith Gessen, a young writer writing about young writers. I was skimming along in the review when this passage jumped out at me. It’s about Sam, who wants to write a great novel but is too shallow. Here’s the excerpt:
” ‘Look,’ he said. ‘My Google is shrinking.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘My Google. I Google myself and every time it gets lower.’
‘Right. Pages often go off-line and then they no longer show up on searches.
‘Yes, I understand that, but this is getting out of hand. I was in the mid 300s before. Now I’m at, like, 40.’ “
Maybe it’s a guy thing, but I instantly thought of George Costanza on “Seinfeld” and the famous “shrinkage” episode, in which George went swimming in cold water.
Or maybe I could relate because I’ve noticed that my Google, too, is shrinking. I’ve written a lot that’s gone online, and been posted and shared in cyber-places I never dreamed of, and I have a very unusual name. So I’m easy to track. Like many people, I’ve Googled myself from time to time, and I have noticed over the past few months a little shrinkage, Google-wise.
I assure you my ego is not affected by this. Really, I mean it. Really. But I’m also curious: Has anyone else experienced Google shrinkage?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Comments
By diddy
April 16, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this
This is no surprise. As more and more content gets added to the internet, search engines have to adjust. A good idea would be to be added to wikipedia.com and edit it yourself from time to time.
I’m just an average joe, so zero results came up when I googled my name and city. But then I joined this website called Linked In, which is like a professional networking site, and my profile came up on the first page on google. That’s enough for me. Besides, you have to be careful. You don’t want somebody to google you and your myspace page comes up that shows you doing something embarassing.
By Jeff
April 16, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
Well, I evidently have a fairly common name - though I never thought so when I was growing up, and still RARELY see anyone else with my name in anything other than Google.
HOWEVER, of the thousands of hits on my name, only about 3 - last time I checked - were actually me.
Most common you will see a baseball player, a race car driver, a preacher, a dude who worked on NASA’s X-33 project, and several other people. But none of those are me. (Though I probably wouldn’t mind being the dude on the NASA project, or even the preacher!)
But hey, I LIKE my (relative) anonymity. I could NEVER handle being in the public spotlight even as much as you are Phil!
By Kate
April 16, 2008 8:56 AM | Link to this
I have a common last name so there are a kagillion hits when I’m googled. One time, I patiently went through page by page to see if any matches were actually me—I finally showed up on page 28. I wouldn’t know if I had shrinkage because I haven’t looked since then, phallic metaphors aside.
I just googled you, Phil. I don’t think your, er, manhood should feel threatened. I mean, you have more hits with your uncommon name, than I have with my common one. Dag, man, walk tall!
By Stan
April 16, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
I have almost no presence on the internet. There are a couple of hits on my name but only 1 oer 2 are me. My wife has a slightly larger presence of hits that are her but she also brings up a gay porn star…Thankfully THAT is NOT her :)
Stan
By One
April 16, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this
I LOVE the fact that when my name is googled (fairly common), all of the hits are not me!! I have ZERO, and that’s the way I want it!!!
By Curious George
April 16, 2008 11:43 AM | Link to this
Hey, Stan…what’s your wife’s name? Buck Naked?
By Kate
April 16, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this
Hey, Stan…what’s your wife’s name? Buck Naked?
Isn’t there a formula for determining your Porn Star Name? Something like—the name of your first pet and the first street where you lived. My pornstar name would be Naomi Rockland. (One google hit, serious shrinkage)
By Kazeltnz
February 26, 2009 11:35 AM | Link to this
Hi webmaster! psk