How to Ego Surf
Ego surfing is simply running a search of your own name through an internet search engine (hence the “ego” part). There are very good reasons to engage in this seemingly narcissistic behavior, such as: keeping track of what's been posted about you, good or bad; discovering authorized (or unauthorized) usage of information and articles that you have posted; and, of course, stroking your ego when you see how many web pages you're listed on. If you haven't ego surfed yet, now is a great time to start.
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Instructions
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Choose the search engines you want to use. It's a good idea to use more than one, as the results can differ widely. For example, a recent search for the name “Harry Houdini” in Yahoo resulted in 2,500,000 occurrences, or “hits.” A search on the same name in Ask resulted in a “mere” 111,000. More doesn't necessarily mean better, though. A study by the University of Berkeley reported that more than 80 percent of the pages in a search engine's database exist only in that database. Getting a “second opinion” is therefore highly recommended.
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Type in your name. If you have an unusual name, run other searches using all of its common misspellings. Also try putting quotation marks around your name, as this will weed out pages where your first name appears in one place and your last name in another, but neither is yours.
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Run your name through blog search engines, too. Sites such as Google, Technorati and Ask not only have this feature, but also allow you to subscribe to a feed of the search results so you can be notified automatically whenever a reference to your name comes up in a discussion.
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Check the results. Not only is this the fun part, but it can be useful, too. Business owners may discover that the unflattering remarks about them or their company are an incentive to change something for the better. Authors may find their work has been plagiarized or published without compensation, and can then take necessary steps to rectify the situation. Or you may just want to bask in the light of your newfound cyberspace stardom.
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Tips & Warnings
Use a metasearch engine (one that accesses multiple search engines at once) to save time. See the Resources for a couple of choices.
Consider using Google Alerts to be notified whenever a new reference to your name is posted.
Set a reminder to ego surf every month or two. An avalanche of new content is added daily to cyberspace. You might be in there, rightfully or not.
Use your library's website to access specialized document databases like Proquest and Electric Library, which you can’t access via a general search engine. In most cases, you will need a library-card number to use these services.
Resources
- Photo Credit Indiana University South Bend
