Thursday, August 6

Googling for people

If Facebook is a HUGE intrusion to privacy, search engines such as Google should also get some recognition for doing that.

One of the things we used to do in my previous company was to google for other people that we know. We realise that Blinky (our ex-boss) knows Japanese, and even found his Christian name, which sounds really funny because it rhymes with his surname. =p

We discovered the hidden potential of a few people we know. One was a marathon runner despite her small frame. And some were actually top scoreres in their university faculty. And there was also people who joined various organisations outside of work. And so on.

If your name was something common, like “Mark Tan” or “Lee Ying Ying”, then you are possibly safe. But when your name is a little more unique, then you had better check if there’s any unwanted information on the Net.

Google also has this Google Image, which is something I use a lot to steal pictures for my blog entries. It has one more use – to know whether a person with a gender-ambiguous sounding name is actually a guy or gal.

Recently, I tried to find out if one of the new Japanese colleague, Yoshiko was male or female. Well, the results displayed easily told me the answer.

Yoshiko the female model
Yoshiko the female wrestler

Yoshiko is a female.

8 comments:

khengsiong said...

You can google for other people only because they posted their personal information on the Web. Which is why I hardly blog about my personal life.

In Japanese, names ended with -ko are usually female. Example: Japanese actress Matsushima Nanako.

wrathofnino said...

That. Is. AWESOME.

Anonymous said...

emm.. stalker alert..

spy@fic said...

thanks. very re-assuring. i constantly google my name -& find nothing. I guess my life just ain't accomplished enough. Maybe i'll get something when i google "spy@fic"?

TG said...

Yes, I have a bit of experience with people who want to find everything about me to post it online and make fun of me. I was already cautious before, all my photos were usually locked on Facebook or elsewhere, I did not post pics of me on my blog. That served me well. To my surprise, they found something, but I deleted it fairly fast. Can you imagine, they found something in my protected account? It's the Google cache...

Anyway, there's probably few pics of me only online, buried somewhere where only my friends can see. Kinda sucks, but iternet is full of weirdos. So be careful.

Shingo T said...

khengsiong:
Yup, I'm just as careful too. But sometimes your friends or organisations are the ones that do the posting - that will be hard to avoid.
the -ko equals female Japanese name is new to me, but it does make sense now that I think of it.

Nino:
haha. You are awesome too!

Anonymous:
Shoo shoo to stalkers.

spy@fic:
Try the word "Kaypoh evil witch" or KEW. =p

MKL:
Protected entries can be spidered by Google? That's creepy.
Yes, the Internet is a place where everyone lurks behind safety shields while obtaining information.

Roxy. said...

That's why i google my name and make sure i take it down if i see my full name facing me. Do not want people to come knowing what i do and sorts outside my online persona.
My friends and I did use facebook to search for a particular teacher that we did not like. We found him and lo and behold, everything about him was there.So fun.
And also finding that your other teachers are well known bloggers. ;p

Shingo T said...

Roxy:
Digging dirty secrets from the Internet about people I do not like is fun. ^_^

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