Googling someone's name that you know. Wrong?

Post Reply New Topic

What are your thoughts?

Not really. I actually encourage people to do this. You may 'know' the person but.. find out otherwise that way.

I found out that my friend had a patent application, something I was able to congratulate him on.

Just because something is on the Internet doesn't make it true. In fact, since anyone can post virtually anything they want with impunity, being posted on the Internet actually increases the odds that it might be a hoax or practical joke or intentional slander. So what's the point?

Nope. You might find interesting things.

Nope. My friend googled my name and found there was an actress with the same name! We had a good laugh about it.

That being said, if you do Google the names of acquaintances you're not friends with, you shouldn't mention it. That would sound like stalking (even though people do that).

I've done that to an ex-boyfriend before......found he got arrested for trespassing.

I just googled one of my ex boyfriends and found out he still lives in the area and his son seems to have his own youtube channel and I saw teen picture of him on google. But I am skeptical of all the information I saw on him because I am not sure if it's accurate like living in Washington and California. Sometimes I do wonder what my ex is up to and if he ever won in court finally or ever made his life better.

I agree with you.

Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not private. There's a difference between looking at what's there and snooping or following everything they do, trying to read between the lines for secrets, etc.

The net is common territory.

I don't think it's wrong, sometimes you want to get to know a person better so you look up info on them like their social networks.

To me that would depend on the reason why I googled them. I twice googled someone I was worried about.
I also had two former pen-"pals" who I had been in touch with for a while and then stopped writing me (and I even sent them a letter asking what was up without getting any reply), so I googled them to see if they were alright, and I found that they were, they were just rectums who wouldn't even let me know but kept me wondering, so I didn't bother with anyone else after that. When people fall off now, I just assume they are trash after all that I'm better off without.

Other than those 4 cases, I haven't and I wouldn't google anyone I am close to because to me that would definitely feel like a violation. It would feel very wrong.

If it was someone I wasn't close with I might google them out of curiosity, but there are very few I'd be that curious about really, it hasn't happened yet.

I've tried googling myself, and I got plenty of hits on my name, but none of them were about me. I can't decide if that's sad or a relief.

exactly

IMHO most of the stuff you get from the internet is an outright lie or scam, much of the rest is misguided, very little is really true, so you find things either rally about someone else and think it is about them or a lie about them and then get suspicious. There are plots to shows about how so many people get in fights over stupid rumors, internet is great for propagating stuff like this.

Nothing wrong with it. Knowledge is power.

When I first started internet dating, the two women who I was conversing with (for a long time) ended up completely flaking after I gave them my last name. It's rather rare, so I sometimes wonder if someone wrote something slanderous about me online. I personally couldn't find anything except some banker in Western Canada and another guy in Australia that shares my name but it's amazing how otherwise intelligent people will believe the most ludicrous things written online without any evidence whatsoever.