Today's New York Times has an interesting article by Stephanie Rosenbloom about the affinity between people with the same name, an affinity that writer and filmmaker Angela Shelton explored by traveling the country to meet, interview, and film other women who share her name. She found them initially through Google. These multiples of our digital selves have acquired a name: Googlegängers.
I'm in the unfortunate position of having Googlegängers who are much, much better known (and much more frequently Googled) than I. U.S. Representative John Tierney (D., MA) is one of them. The journalist John Tierney, who has been writing for the New York Times in one capacity or another for many years, is another. I've gotta say that it's a little bit frustrating to have to scroll through page after page after page of Google results before I run across an entry that is about me. The only way I can front-load me in Google is to include my middle initial -- T. Then I get various college syllabi, and the like, in which my long out-of-print books appear. That's sort of pathetic. We all want to be known, to be recognized.
This blog is, of course, ALL ABOUT increasing my Google presence as John Tierney, sans the T. Do your part. Visit the blog often. Invite your friends. Invite everybody you know. Invite everybody on every email list to which you have access. Pump up the traffic here, peeps.
And, by so doing, you'll increase your readership, too. Because I ask you to register comments below, telling all (four or five) of the readers of this blog who your Googlegängers are. Let's hear all about them. You know you've found some of YOU out there.
