Googling For Dates?

JAK writes "The New York Times' down-to-earth ethicist Randy Cohen writes on the moral implications of searching for a date's past on Google. He suggests that the practice is ok (even admitting to doing it himself) but warns against jumping to conclusions based on a quick search or confusing someone for others with the same name. He also writes that "the verb ''to Google'' is now a familiar neologism" (neologism: a new word, usage, or expression, I looked it up). You can read about it The Times (free reg blah blah)"

Grr

[helix400]

You mean the web may have factual mistakes?

This could threaten the whole concept of this "internet" fad forever! =)

googling

[xavii]

so me and this girl are totally googling and she's all like if you google me first i'll totally google you. so i get all set to google and she backs out grabs her google and googles the fuck out of there. something about my website. i don't know. google her and the horse she googled in on.

This is why I look at lots of porn

[Anonymous Coward]

In case I ever date a women who has done porn, I'll probably know.

One time a tracked a girl down...

[zombiepopper]

and found out she had lived in all 50 states of the USA, with about 60 different addresses in each one. Barbara, I would have loved you but you googled out to be really bloody sketchy.

Limiting to only Google!?

[Nefrayu]

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but if you're going to use the net to search for info on anyone, I'd suggest using other things than just Google. For example, I used free memberships to a couple of online dating sites to not only find out more about my date, but I had naked pic's of her before we even decided on where to go to dinner! Now that's using the net to find useful information!

Re:googling

[Anonymous Coward]

smurfy!

I sincerely hope

[Anonymous Coward]

I sincerely hope it will never become possible to Google on surf behaviours in the early/mid-nienties... Those dates... Those days... [blushing]

Buffy earlier this season...

[Anonymous Coward]

Willow: "Have you tried Googling her?"

Xander: "Willow, she's only 17!"

And here's a Google cartoon [cartoonbank.com] from the New Yorker.

Everyone does this.

[Faggot]

If you haven't read every single google link about your Significant Other, you're just not in love.

Googlewhacking?

[VoidEngineer]

I sense that there is some relationship between 'googlewhacking' and finding an available and attractive person of the opposite sex who is listed on google. But I'm not sure how to define it...

Re:Not only useful for dating...

[Burnon]

Just wait for day when a web spider gets smart enough to correlate blog user IDs to real names. I sure hope I never get my real name correlated against Anonymous Coward - I'd never get a smart date again!

Re:Limiting to only Google!?

[qqtortqq]

Why bother with dinner if you have naked pics of her? Google the name of her parents, and blackmail her into having sex with you, sending the pics to her parents if she doesnt want to.

Re:In SOVIET RUSSIA...

[ackthpt]

In SOVIET RUSSIA date googles you

Maybe so, but in P.R. China you probably can't google any one you know who is Taiwanese.

Re:I sincerely hope

[ackthpt]

I sincerely hope it will never become possible to Google on surf behaviours in the early/mid-nienties... Those dates... Those days... [blushing]

Yeah, just make sure you have your firewall configured correctly, you always want to make sure you have protection when googling or you never know what you'll catch.

Re:Limiting to only Google!?

[Nefrayu]

Ha! Wish I had though of that before I paid for the dinner!

Re:Hmmm...

[becktabs]

i know...at the point where you break into their wireless lan to google about them from there.

The Beginning Of The End

[Anonymous Coward]

Sign of the impending apocalypse:

Slashdot editor looks up word in dictionary.

Film at 11.

Weighting the odds...

[Nathdot]

If this practice takes off you can guarantee we'll be setting up a few impartial "third party" websites that bespeaks a plethora of praise in our own honor.

Each site'll have a whole bunch of meta tags, something like:
BENEVOLENT, NATHDOT, KIND, LIKES LONG WALKS ALONG BEACHES, NATHDOT, NATHDOT, NEVER KICKS CATS, NATHDOT, NATHDOT, NATHDOT, CHARITABLE TOWARD ALL MANKIND, NATHDOT, 9 1/2" PENIS, NATHDOT, GREAT COOK, etc. etc.

Simply by flooding the source of information she'll be hard pressed if she can ever find that juvie record for arson and wilfull destruction of property.

Think Different.

Re:Thanks, Mr Hemos

[Hubert_Shrump]

I wouldn't be so sure. So far, no one, and I mean NO ONE can seem to spell "goat sex" right. What is that, like 7 letters?

Google and wireless web.

[MikeFM]

Am I the only person that uses Google and a wireless web device to fake knowledge during conversations? I pick out keywords as people talk and read about it while half listening and then reply as if I actually knew about the subject. Of course I kind of do know about the subject then but it never fails to impress people that you know about everything they are interested in. If you're good they won't even notice you looking stuff up.

I can only imagine more of this as we get more into wearable computers or even wetware. :)

Re:This is why I look at lots of porn

[Anonymous Coward]

"In case I ever date a women"

Pretty big first step there, if they ever google for this page...

Re:Not a good idea

[nounderscores]

The other Too Much Coffee Man [tmcm.com] is a CHILD MOLESTER??!?

Say it aint so!

C'mon, baby,

[zephc]

"I swear, it was a different Zeph Campbell!"

Re:Limiting to only Google!?

[Phroggy]

Why bother with dinner if you have naked pics of her? Google the name of her parents, and blackmail her into having sex with you, sending the pics to her parents if she doesnt want to.

So um, you couldn't get a girl who's obviously looking for sex (why else would she post naked pics on online dating sites?) to sleep with you, unless you blackmailed her? That's pretty sad, dude.

hubba hubba

[houseofmore]

"but warns against jumping to conclusions based on a quick search or confusing someone for others with the same name"

Even more specific to imagies.google.com if your dates name end in 'ie'. =)

Naked pics, eh?

[bonch]

Care to share? *cough* I want to make sure it's not the same girl.

Er.

Too bad my ex knows how to use google.com

[saskboy]

I tried selling her half used bottle of skin cream on eBay the other week. If she did a google for it, then I might be in a world of hurt.

At least it wasn't yeast infection cream, huh?*

*No infection had ever occurred to my knowledge.

Damn it editors

[johnraphone]

I looked at the title "Googling For Dates?" and I thought Google started a dating service (dates.goolge.com) but after i read the thing, you have to have a date already :(

Re:I did this...

[cyberon22]

C'mon, she said she was a hacker....

Re:Grr

[orthogonal]

Caveat Lector! Oh and I've done it before, one was an actress and I found a really good review of some of her work in the LA Weekly online, so yes Googling potential dates can be a very good idea

An actress??

Has political correctness gone so far that we can no longer use the correct terms, "carny" or "carnival freak"?

Warning

[vex24]

He... ...warns against jumping to conclusions based on a quick search or confusing someone for others with the same name.

So basically do exactly the opposite of what they'd do on Three's Company. Got it.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Grr

[quintessent]

Maybe you could limit your search to The Register and Slashdot to avoid any factual mistakes.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Google can save you from embarrassment!

[teamhasnoi]

Ok. Maybe not always [dionisus.com]

Re:Cheat dating?

[Anonymous Coward]

Google is a mighty tool, capable of being used for great good, or great evil! You must learn to respect that power!

Right.

Well, what if she was into mutilating chickens?

If you were an ass, you might just walk up to her in public and say "OH MY GOD YOU MUTILATE CHICKENS!"

If you weren't an ass, you might find some other reason to get the hell away from her.

And if you never did the search at all, you might end up in a dark forest in the middle of a chicken mutilating ceremony and then everything would be awkward!

(Sorry, I'm so in the mood for chicken cordon bleu right now.)

Re:googling

[D+iz+a+n+k+Meister]

All you'd get would be people searching for "Open Source Thong," etc. ;-)

Meanwhile...

[tunah]

In Soviet Russia, dates google YOU!

er... wait...

Re:Ok?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's like discovering your girlfriend posed for playboy: the moment she finds out you know, your relationship will fall apart.

Shhyeah, I know that feeling

It worked for me!

[edashofy]

True story: I was thinking of asking this one girl out. Honor student, totally anal, the whole works. So I googled her, as any good hacker would. What came up?

The local police blotter!

Thank you, Google! I still know where my wallet is because of you!

Tip: if you Google, don't bring it up

[Splurk]

My due diligence before a round of interviews included a Google search on the hiring manager's name. I was looking for conversation ideas, but when I told him how I learned that he played the drums, I think I stepped over a line. Or maybe I didn't get the job for some more substantial reason?

Re:Yeah, well, hot chicks dig guys who don't . . .

[GMontag]

So if you're really desperately hot for a particular chick and can fake casual sincerity you've got it made.

Oh, you misunderstood, I meant any exceptionally hot chicks, not one i specific. And I am always sincere, whether I mean it or not.

The point?

[IHateUniqueNicks]

This is interesting and all, but I fail to see why the slashdot crowd needs to know this.

I mean, it's not like we're going to spend our time googleing our girlfriends. We already know everything about them. After all, we made them up.

Damn it

[Anonymous Coward]

Google search: Britney Spears Chance in Hell

Results: None.

WTF?

Open Source Dating :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

I can envision a time where we can openly
document our dating histories (possibly
without full names of past SO's, unless
authorised by each one, in turn), and -
like Philip Greenspun seems to do -
invite (by their publication) - anyone
to have a read, eg before coming any closer.

In Sweden, the Tax Office still (AFAIK)
allows one open access to anyone else's
most current year's tax record, including
net income for state & local tax purposes.

That's one of the parameters that some
check before deciding how close to come,
or so goes one urban myth...

Telling more personal details, eg publish-
ing our diaries, histories of loves past,
present & [perferences about] future, as
if written (in part) for use as profiles
for online dating services... ;-)

Of course buyer beware still applies!

New Poll?

[yuri]

Scariest google date search results?

1. Advertisements for slaughter victims in a german canabilism newsgroup.
2. The 16 year old horny schoolgirl you met on ICQ, actually is a 16 year old horny schoolgirl.
3. Her blog has updates on how your date went. And the 'penis size' poll is not going well.
4. Her last boyfriend was Coyboy Neal, and now nobody else will ever be good enough.

Re:googling

[visualight]

Of course it would be difficult if all you looked up was p0rn.

On the other hand, if anyone can find a girl who divides her day between fps's and a.b.p.e.*, google can.

Re:Something similar...

[phutureboy]

Wow, that's depressing. That paragraph pretty much describes my entire college career. (To quote one of my female friends: "You need to grow some balls.")

Sadly, it pretty much describes my entire life. The only difference is that I consistently *do* ask the girl out, but to no avail. Oh well, I give myself points for trying.

Getting turned down by a chick has to be the single longest sound known to man. It seems like it takes forever to pass.

Me: "Hi, I was wondering if you would like to..." (gets cut off by chick)

Chick: "N-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o...." (seems like it lasts for 20, maybe 30 minutes, but in reality only takes 5 seconds)

Me: "Ah, thank you miss, may I have another?"

Sigh.

Re:This is why I look at lots of porn

[visualight]

I once dated a girl that let ed powers cum on her ass. It kind of bothered me.

Lots of options beyond Google

[therevan]

- If your date has a Web site of her own, well, first off, you're dating the kind of girl who'll love a /.er tenderly, and secondly, there's no need for awkward phone-number and e-mail cullings when you have WHOIS.

Re:googling

[Stormie]

Am I the only one who interpreted "Googling for a date" to mean "Use google to find a date"?

Maybe. I interpreted it as typing something like "September 23" into Google to see what happened on that date in the past. Fucked if I could figure out how that could possibly be unethical. Then I read the article and figured out that I'd gotten confused by the USian slang..

Re:Not only useful for dating...

[bLanark]

I admit I have done this many times after interviewing people as a last check before hiring them.

I have too. Funniest one was a guy who had posted in some kind of student self-help forum, basically his advice was "have a wank; I do it all the time".

I must pop onto google groups and ask them to remove all my semi-humorous usenet posts from their archive, and only leave the saintly helping-out-users posts. It can only help.
I'm lucky to have a pretty common name (sorta equivalent to "John Smith" where I come from), but this goes both ways - posts might be attributed to me when they're not mine, or they might be attributed to others when they are.

*snicker*

[Polyphemis]

Am I the only one that finds it fiercely ironic that Google is providing regstrationless entry into a registration-only New York Times article talking about the ethics of using Google? :)

DC Sniper on Google

[gnarly]

About 30 Minutes after the police issued an arrest warrant for John Allen Williams in connection with the DC area sniper murders, I looked him up on Google. In only a matter of minutes this page [luc.edu] had already been set up.

Re:Everyone does this.

[Duds]

And you managed to read every link about THAT?!?!?

Impressed :)

Re:*snicker*

[Anonymous Coward]

yes.

Re:googling

[necrognome]

A match-making algorith can't be that different to a search algorithm, could it?

I've skimmed through all of my textbooks on algorithms, including Knuth, and I have yet to find a search algorithm as simple and elegant as this match-making "formula":

CH3 CH2 OH

Re:googling

[sporty]

Holy marklar, marklar!

Re:Grr

[Alan Partridge]

actress = aspiring actress = stripper = whore

Searching for Dates?

[Alethes]

1) Enter preference (e.g. "hair:Blonde sex:Female age:25 breasts:big")

2) Click "I'm Feeling Lucky"

Yeah, Randy Cohen is probably right. This is not a good idea.

Oh, you mean DATES

[Lord Grey]

I guess I've been doing this too long.

I read the blurb on the main page and couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what the hell the topic was. Why would searching for dates be an ethical problem? I try to find things in past on Google all the time....

Oh. Dates. As in girls. Not Julian calendar dates.

Slap forehead.

Re:Grr

[Alan Partridge]

I hope you're not keeping feral children within the city limits...

I couldn't find an imdb entry for "Indie Movies" - was it a porno flick?

Re:Grr

[Christopher_G_Lewis]

Caveat Lector???

And then did you eat her liver liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti? :-)

New service: Oogle.google.com

[nortcele]

Yes siree. Google has now branched out again. In addition to Froogle.google, they now have Oogle.google for all your dating needs.

Re:Limiting to only Google!?

[Nefrayu]

You'll find when you grow up and finally finish puberty that dating becomes more than just getting laid. It's about friendship, common interests, trust, and enjoying the person whom you're with (I leave the gender open for you, but the species implied is human). If you have the opportunity to talk with a woman who's not chewing you out for exposing yourself to underage girls online, talk with her, and I'm sure she'll reitterate that which I have stated here.

Same article was in the WSJ *Six Years Ago*

[n9fzx]

This is really old news; The Wall Street Journal ran a similar article in 1996, only then 1) it was AltaVista, and 2) it was actually news.

Are you sure that's a good idea?

[duck_prime]

<aghast>
We pause here to note that Google's ranking algorithm is popularity based. You're looking for the girl that has been "linked" the most. Jesus, dude, why not just read the bathroom walls?
</aghast>

This can be a bad thing too

[EvilStein]

Speaking of things you didn't ever expect to see on Google, I Googled for an ex-girlfriend one time, and I ran across her friggin obituary.

What a haunting experience that was.

Re:googling

[eclectus]

I've skimmed through all of my textbooks on algorithms, including Knuth, and I have yet to find a search algorithm as simple and elegant as this match-making "formula":

CH3 CH2 OH

Hey, don't forget about CH Cl3 ....

Dates?

[nightsweat]

I understand "to Google", but what is this "date" thing of which you speak?

"Googling" == Checking up on someone?

[spanky555]

Since when has anyone actually heard anyone else use it in this manner, or used it themselves?

I use it as a replacement for "searching", and I hear countless other do the same..."go google for foo". Yes, I guess it could be applied to a person, but I seriously doubt it's used soley as that - unless you are some executive type who doesn't even know where "all your base are belong to us" comes from...so many of these assholes still think yahoo and microsoft are the only way to search. Yes, the same assholes who repeat, "talk to the hand", "don't go there, girlfriend", "show me the money!" and other stupid memes.

Is the dipstick who wrote this immersed in internet culture at all, or is he just another "pundit" who only uses AOL and for IM and email, at that? I wonder if he's heard of mailing lists and Usenet, or is it all about "chat rooms" for him?

I bet his next editorial will be: "The latest neologism: 'blogging' - is it okay to read others' online diaries????"

What a tool this guy is. More apropos to privacy issues would be companies' being able to do a financial background check on employees - why can't *I*, as an employee, do the same for the people running the company I work for? After all, we are entering into a sort of contract that would ordinarily require due diligence, but this is not an option for employees. Or honesty and full disclosure in accounting at companies - why can't *I* know the company is bleeding money, and there will likely be layoffs? These are much more pressing issues in the realm of ethics, not some fucking puff piece on dating.

Re:Google and wireless web.

[normiep]

Oh, I do this too. Unfortunatly someone heard me typing in the background once. JUST ONCE! Now, whenever I pause to think about anything on the phone he accuses me of looking it up on the net (which is a good bet ;) ).