Egosurfing

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Egosurfing (usually referred to as Googling yourself and sometimes called vanity searching, egosearching, egogoogling, autogoogling, self-googling, master-googling, google-bating) is the practice of searching for one's own given name, surname, full name, pseudonym, or screen name on a popular search engine, to see what results appear.[1] It has become increasingly popular with the rise of popular search engines, as well as free blogging and web-hosting services. It is sometimes combined with third-party tools when several people egosurf together, or with Pimp My Search when people create their own search engine, or accessed by SMS through services which people SMS their name to a number and an "egosearch" is performed on that name and returned (egotexting).

Similarly, an egosurfer is one who surfs the Internet for his or her own name, to see what, if any, articles appear about himself or herself. It may also be used by professionals to reassure themselves no embarrassing information is readily available about themselves that could jeopardize a reputation.

The term was coined by Sean Carton in 1995 and first appeared in print as an entry in Gareth Branwyn's March 1995 Jagon Watch column in Wired.[2][3][4][5]

Egosurfing can be used to find data spills, released information that is undesirable to have in the public eye.

According to a study by the Pew Internet & American life project[6], 47% of American adult internet users have undertaken a vanity search in Google or another search engine.

Vanity search can also be performed as online reputation management self-monitoring tool.

[edit] See also

  • Kibozing - prior to the existence of search engines, a similar practice existed on Usenet, known as kibozing after James "Kibo" Parry, who was well known for replying in a surreal fashion to anyone who mentioned his/her name, on any newsgroup.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "All Geek to Me". Ur magazine (Rogers). 
  2. ^ Citizen Scholar: Design & Responsibility » Blog Archive » Ego Surfing
  3. ^ Street Tech :: hardware beyond the hype
  4. ^ Macmillan Dictionary egosurfing
  5. ^ Jargon Watch 3.03
  6. ^ http://www.pewinternet.org/Media-Mentions/2007/Do-You-Use-Google-For-Vanity-Searching-Youre-Not-Alone.aspx Pew Internet study
  7. ^ http://www.faqs.org/docs/jargon/K/kiboze.html
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