goo·gle

verb, often capitalized \ˈgü-gəl\

goo·gledgoo·gling

Definition of GOOGLE

transitive verb

: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

Origin of GOOGLE

Google, trademark for a search engine

First Known Use: 2001

Source: Merriam-webster.com

A few days ago I visited Dr. Google for a routine checkup of my online persona. Though he didn't find cavities or other serious problems, Dr. G did find a few random "tracking devices"---one clearly Russian-made---keeping tabs on my online activities. More on that in a minute.

If you haven't done so before, now is the time to check how common your name is in the online world. When I started law school in August 2010, I Googled "Cory Clements" and quickly found that it is a fairly common name. That's when I decided to add the middle initial S. to my name on my various profiles across the internet, and I have had a unique online name ever since. But in reality, there's a good chance that I didn't even need to add my middle initial, since none of the other Corys is very active in the online community. If your name is fairly common, you should consider adding your middle initial or something similar---particularly if one of your name buddies is active online. Just don't try something cutesy like changing your first name to Captain. Also, make sure to be consistent.

Some of the sites that I found by Googling myself were quite useful. For example, I saw that my Klout score (34 43 as of this posting) is higher than Greg Israelsen's (33 40 as of this posting). And both our Klout scores are higher than the score of our beloved J. Reuben Clark Law School (21 as of this posting). (I started writing this post two days ago and since then I jumped nine points and Greg jumped seven points). I even have screen shots to prove it.

I'm the red line and it's visibly higher than Greg Israelsen's blue line.

Ignore the taller, blue bar to the right and focus on the higher, red line in the center.

And the Russian website is actually quite flattering, considering that it portrays me as a celebrity.

StarsFeed.com Thinks I'm a Celebrity

I decided to drop them a note to show my appreciation:

To all my Russian-speaking fans,

I just want to say thank you for your love and support. But I also have to say that I am astonished to be listed with some of these celebrities. Omar Epps, now that's something I can understand. He plays a great role on House as Dr. Foreman. Dr. Foreman once was a medical student, and that's similar to being a law student I suppose. Barack Obama, I can see that one too. Now that he is Campaign Obama, he's definitely got celebrity material. He was once a law student, too. Then he was a lawyer, a law professor, a senator, and now President of the United States. Justin Timberlake, though? That man is on a completely different level than me. He can sing, he can dance, he can act. But can he do law school? We'll never know! Oh yea, and how did Ryan Seacrest make the list? And who is Team Coco? I don't even know who (or what) that is, but it sounds like evidence that this site has a fairly low bar for considering someone a celebrity.

Thanks again for recognizing my "celebrity qualities."

Best regards,

Cory S. Clements

So if you haven't done so for a while, give your online-self a checkup by Googling yourself. Sign out of your Google account, set the location to somewhere other than your actual location (I entered Washington, DC, for example), and search for your name. Oh yea—make sure you put quotation marks around your name before you hit search (i.e., "Cory S. Clements" not Cory S. Clements). Your results will be much more accurate. After searching through the random links that appear, you may be surprised, or even a bit flattered (like me), at what you find. Here are a few of the random treasures I found:

a partial list of websites that are randomly tracking me:

A site called Topsey re-posts my tweets and cascades them if there is more than one tweet in a day.

A site called crowdreel.com has saved a spot for me, just in case I ever decide to post photos there.

A neat Twitter statistics site called Twitter Counter shows that something significant must have happened on January 11th.

A site called GooglePlus Friend's List shows that charles timothy has me listed in a circle called "funs."

A link to my page on Klout. I wonder if talking about and linking to Klout will actually increase my Klout score.* Even though I have no idea what a Klout score signifies. Imponderables . . .

A site called Mirror.me Labs is a Google+ web-crawler that shows my friend circle from Google+.

A Russian site called Starsfeed re-posts all of Cory S. Clements's Celebrity tweets in Кыргызча.

A site called iPhone Sleeve Case sells iPhone sleeves and cases (go figure!). If you click reviews, you'll see that I authored the second review in the list. The problem is that I wrote the review for Amazon.com. My review got hijacked.

And just one last thing. Do yourself a favor: Check out Amanda Ellis's blog for great advice on how to manage your online persona. I have also read her book—The 6Ps of the Big 3 for Job-Seeking JDs: 60+ Ways to Get Hired Using Social Networking—and I highly recommend it to every law student or lawyer. It is a great resource for understanding how to interact with the "Big 3" social-media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.