Vanity Search

The other day in class, Professor Brown gave a lecture about security and privacy on the Internet. He introduced the term "vanity search," which is when you enter your name into a search engine. He advised everyone in the class to do a vanity search because interviewers will definitely "google" your name.

I never knew there was actually a term for running a search on your own name, so I had unknowingly done a few vanity searches in the past. I was relieved to find that my name only showed up in a roster on my sorority's website. However, I only looked at the first page of results. Today, for the first time, I conducted a thorough vanity search and was surprised with the results. First, I searched my real name. I was happy to see that my blog was the second result on the first page! A few pages later, my name appeared on the University of Delaware's school newspaper website in an article describing a contest I had won. When I searched my nickname with my last name, the sorority roster was the first result and my profile on a friends networking website was the second. The third result was a website that I never agreed to be featured on, but my name and picture were on the website with several other girls from my school. Apparently, we're all going to be in a calendar that highlights dates important to UD.

I am so glad I took the time to do a thorough vanity search because after I get the one website issue sorted out, I will be prepared for any interviewer to "google" me.