Googled

It's strange.

I am very Web 2.0 savvy.

I have this blog. I tell the world a lot about me here. Obviously not everything, but I am fairly honest and cover a wide range of topics. Friends and strangers comment on my blog. I visit other blogs regularly, and comment occasionally.

I use Facebook each day. Share photos with my friends. Update my status to tell my friends what I am thinking. I currently have 751 friends on Facebook. Admittedly I probably only speak to 100 of these on Facebook? But I would know 700 of them in real life.

I also use Twitter. I keep in touch with what's happening in the world this way. Get peoples' opinions (in 140 characters or less) on Twitter. I do know some tweeters, and have met some new people through Twitter. But the majority of tweeters I allow to see my feed I don't know in real life.

Myspace is still there. My blog still exists. I am 'friends' with a number of bands. I don't visit often.

And I am keen to study Web 2.0 in the subjects for my Masters degree. I researched social networking in a hierarchical organisation. I also researched the way people with chronic illness and disability use the Web 2.0 to mobilise themselves. And my thesis will be along these lines too.

So, yeah, I am quite into using Web 2.0 and merging my real life with the Internet.

I've had this blog for about two months. I have put a visitor counter on it about a month ago. I am amazed by the number of hits I get per day. I believe 486 was the most I have had. Wow. Flattering. I am also intrigued by where my visitors are from - Hong Kong, Latvia, Italy, Barbados, Denmark, Wodongs, to name a few. And I like to see how they reached my page - usually via Facebook or the Vogue Forums.

Sometimes I can see that someone who is not my friend on Facebook but a friend of a friend has accessed my blog. Even though I am set to private on all of my setting bar some photos. That surprised me to know that privacy on Facebook is not that secure. Well, I guess it shouldn't have surprised me - the media goes on about it all the time.

I am also a little disconcerted to know how many people Google me. Ok, it's not that many. But five Googles a week is surprising. People have Googled 'Carly Findlay', 'Carly Findlay Melbourne', 'Radio Carly irrelevant' and 'Carly Findlay ichthyosis'.

Of course they've Googled other things like 'Rob Thomas concert' or Marie Claire Jennifer Hawkins', and I always marvel how this Google search brings them to my blog. I am always relieved to know that someone searching 'Britney porn video' or a much more explicit term is not directed to my blog!

But I am always surprised, and a little creeped out that people Google my name and location and illness. I think most of the Googles may be because people may have forgotten the linky to my blog - hopefully - but then I wonder why someone is Googling my name at 11:08 pm.

I probably shouldn't worry, because after all, I created this blog to share my thoughts with the world, and I belong to other social networking sites on which I share my life with.

And I admit, I have Googled peoples' names too. Mostly my own name, but yes, I have done some Googling.


But to be Googled when I am not a celebrity is one part flattering, two parts uncomfortable. I wonder who these Googlers are.

To those who keep a blog and have a visitor counter, does this worry you too?