Dwight Watt - Newspaper article #39 12/30/2009


Question: How do I find out what is about me on the Internet?

Answer:
Finding out about your self (as seen on the Internet) is fairly simple.

It is something I would encourage people to occasionally do. You may learn things about you that you had not really realized. You may find some similarities to your name that are interesting. For instance yesterday I searched myself (Dwight Watt) and discovered a novel is being written in Kansas about a college professor named Dwight Watt. It will be interesting to see what the book is when published next year. You may also find negatives about you out there or you not presented well. This is a case I warn my students about when they get ready to go job hunting as some of them have posted inappropriate language on some sites or questionable pictures that present a negative light on them. By knowing it is there, they may be able to remove it (warning tweets are not removable) or at least be prepared to deal with the issue.

How to do it? Go to your Google search box and type in your name. If you have a common name you may need to add your city after it to get it narrowed down. I would start with your common known name and last name and then add specifics. In my case I turned up stuff about me and my dad so I just have to look at them (he was in to plant fossils and I am into computers so relatively easy). Then do a search in another engine like Bing or Yahoo. I have been amazed the different items that Bing turned up on me than Google and Bing had items more related to me. Course others with the same type name will appear, in my case I learned there is a Dwight Watts (he has a s at end) who says he is “America’s new Jesus”.

Doing a search on yourself is a way to find what others find about you. Often it is fun, but sometimes you may discover more is out there than you want.

Enjoy life on the Internet but be careful as there are bad people there also who will grab information wrongly.

(c) 2009 by Dwight Watt
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