Saturday, July 14, 2012

You're so vain - You probably think that this blog is about you.

Similar to the Carly Simon song I can think of a change to the lyrics:

"You're so Wayne, you probably think that this blog is about you"

Back in 2006 I started a study of "Vanity Googling" - or the act of looking for yourself on the Internet. At the time I coined the phrase "Narcisurfing" and it was also used by others to describe the activity.

The reasons for this are obvious and I have managed to attract many visits from those that are either looking for themselves or they are interested in this type of "vanity" search. Often there is a concern that there is misinformation about the person making the search and it is part of a "damage control" exercise.

When I see searches from a particular location, Saskatoon for example, and I see search strings such as "Wayne McAlpine" I cannot but suspect that this is not an example of this. In addition, the pages that are viewed are only those that are found by why what appears to be a single individual and the searches are made on a consistent periodic basis. Normally, unless the page is of popular interest (such as the unlocking of system BIOS), pages are accessed at random and from locations spread throughout the world.

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