More Americans ‘Google’ Selves, Others
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
More Americans are Googling themselves — and many are checking out their friends, co-workers, and romantic interests, too.
In a report yesterday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47% of American adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine. That is more than twice the 22% of users who did in 2002, but a senior research specialist at Pew, 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. About 60% of Internet users said they aren’t worried about the extent of information about themselves online.
