More Americans are Googling themselves — and many are checking out their friends, co-workers and romantic interests, too.
In a report Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47% of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.
That is more than twice the 22 percent of users who did in 2002, but Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised the growth wasn't higher.
"Yes it's doubled, but it's still the case that there's a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines," she said. "Certainly awareness has increased, but I don't know it's necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us."
About 60% of Internet users said they aren't worried about the extent of information about themselves online, despite increasing concern over how that data can be used.
Americans under 50 and those with more education and income were more likely to self-Google — in some cases because their jobs demand a certain online persona.
Meanwhile, Pew found that 53% of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else, celebrities excluded.
Often, it's to find someone they've lost touch with. But looking up information about friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors also was common.
Although men and women equally searched for online information about themselves, women were slightly more likely to look up information about someone they are dating.
In many cases, the search is innocuous, done to find someone's contact information. But a third of those who have conducted searches on others have looked for public records, such as bankruptcies and divorce proceedings. A similar number have searched for someone else's photo.
Few Internet users say they Google themselves regularly — about three-quarters of self-searchers say they have done so only once or twice. And most who have done so consider what they find accurate. Only 4% of Internet users said embarrassing or inaccurate information online resulted in a bad experience.
Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to restrict who can see their profiles at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace, contrary to conventional wisdom.
"Teens are more comfortable with the applications in some ways, (but) I also think they have their parents and teachers telling them to be very careful about what they post and who they share it with," Madden said.
The telephone survey of 1,623 Internet users was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 30 last year and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3% points.
Source- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071216/ap_on_hi_te/personal_internet_searches;_ylt=Ap9pZBMu8Hz.T.LrbwkI4qMjtBAF
It even features a cigar that lights up thanks to a handy pen light/felt contraption. And, of course, it brews beer in its belly, which makes it that much better.
You'll also apparently soon be able to take advantage of the new "Voice Changer" feature, which will let you disguise your voice in voice or video chat, and you'll be getting support for (VC-1) WMV files in addition to the aforementioned DivX ones. If any of that interests you, we'd suggest keeping an eye out, 'cause it sure looks like this one's about to drop.
SANTA'S FACTORY, North Pole (Agencies) - An Imperial Stormtrooper commando broke into Santa's Factory in the North Pole yesterday evening, killing an undetermined number of elves, arresting the owner and confiscating his sled. Joe Kwazansky, local spokesman for the Evil Galactic Empire in Los Angeles, appeared in a press conference this morning confirming the rumors of an Imperial takeover of Christmas' celebrations. "The Emperor wants to assure His subjects that Xmas will continue as planned. The pug-nosed fatso, however, will pay for his crimes," Mr. Kwazansky said amidst the palpable shock in the press corps. Apparently, the arrest has occurred in connection with earlier reports on the manufacturing and stealth placement of Weapons of Mass Destruction:
More Americans are Googling themselves — and many are checking out their friends, co-workers and romantic interests, too.
Smartphones running Symbian, Linux and Palm OS all fall behind Apple's iPhone. This is ever more stunning because the iPhone is only available via one carrier, in contrast, the other platforms can be procured from various cellular networks. This dramatically increases their market penetration. From the perspective of a business model, these figures are simply astronomical. Who's running scared? Apparently, Symbian is:
