yarbroughs dot org

Discussion on this morning’s Mikey Show on Rock 105.3 turned to an email a listener sent in.  Said listener had a first date with a nice girl… and so he asked her out on a second date.  She casually mentioned that she googled his name inbetween dates, and he’s “safe,” and she’s very glad of that.  The listener was really unsure as to whether there would be a third date, as he was upset at the notion that he was “googled” like that. I have thoughts that I didn’t have time to call in and express on the air.

(1) To the guy:  Get the hell over it.  The ONLY way you’re going to not be on a public Google search is if nothing you do ever ends up on a website.  [this means you're fortunate I don't remember your name.  Or you're fortunate that Mikey show only does "P-1 names."  Something.]

(2) To the girl:  Seriously.  I hope your date’s name isn’t John Smith.  I have no idea how you might know that your search wasn’t clean?  There was a caller this morning who told the story of how HE got googled, and his name came up as being arrested on suspicion of murder 2 weeks earlier in New York City.  The problem with this is we are as far away from New York City as you can be while remaining in the lower 48… and if a guy was arrested for murder 2 weeks ago in NYC, odds are he would still be in jail in NYC, and not on a date in San Diego county. The guy never got a call back, which probably isn’t a bad thing as he wasn’t dealing with a rocket scientist.

(2a)  How would you know if the search pertained to the guy in question?  I never really thought my name was common; however, googling it brought me to this website as the first hit… and 30 results later, a profile on 1up.com.  The 29 results inbetween are to a web designer, a gambling guru, a senior at some Georgia high school, and a few other people.  A search on my full name brought similar results, except I was #2 instead of #1.  Not totally surprising as I don’t use the name Benjamin, except at work, and then only grudgingly.  [As a sidebar, I found another Benjamin Yarbrough today in our "Global Address List" in MS Outlook... and he works within a couple of miles of my office.]

People shouldn’t worry about Google so much.  What’s really going to kill people’s dating lives is Youtube.  For instance, this person is going to have trouble finding a boyfriend in later years.