I find this really interesting and it’s a strange phenomenon. I know that companies out there “Google” (can you believe this has become a verb) before hiring someone, you, me, anyone. It has become standard practice, or a background check and normally, I would have no problem with that since a great majority of the things that come up when I Google my own name seem to be put there by me or at least, relate back to me in some positive way, but I see this phenomenon occurring and it’s not new entirely and I’ve noticed it before and mentioned it, but here I am again because it’s important:

I found a few things about myself that I did not know. For one, I am featured, though this changes daily, on several erotic web sites, though I didn’t find myself, I did find my name used because I get a lot of hits and the way the site works is by using tags that get a lot of hits and key word searches and apparently, for whatever reason, a few or one large company has decided that my name is just weird enough (and I would agree with that) that it’s a good one to use to get traffic, or maybe they used it just piss me off. I don’t know which. I don’t really care in some ways because the real material is there and always will be and those who count know the difference between utter dreck and the matter that counts.

I also found myself linked with a private detective referral agency which makes some sense since I did some work for a PI or worked with him for a while and also, I’ve done some work with a federal agent regarding internet pornography, so this comes together but only sort of. This does help explain the numerous women who, I’m glad, write to me for advice regarding marriages in which one or the other partner is cheating and etc. Now I see why; I thought it was just the topic of my articles, but is see now that this is only part of the picture. That there is much more that I have left out.

I’m also very hooked up with Sadi Carnot but only because the name seems to coincide with Sadi as a first name a perhaps rue Ranson or something, who knows, but it’s all French and not really related to me (though certainly, some of the French stuff is, this particular is not).

My Bob Dylan work has seen my linked into a few really interesting places, but hey, I’m glad of it because it always drives traffic our way and that is never bad, but is interesting. I was surprised and happy to see I was at MickeyRoarkeOnline for my Masked and Anonymous review, which isn’t bad at all… so I’ll take that as a compliment.

Now, Samsung has me tied into their sites which is very weird because I wrote an awful review of one of their cell phones and yet they are using my name… which is very, very strange and should be outlawed or they should at least print my article but instead choose to print how great their product is without a mention of my name… I find this very strange. Oh, and did I mention it’s the French part of the site? I’m big in France. I found myself referenced on a French Dylan site, which I thought was interesting. I also found myself on a site called “Stumble Upon” where people can select their favorite sites and found that I had several people who recommended Tant Mieux as a great site, which here again, is always good publicity. It’s nice to know that for all of the effort I’ve put into building The Tant Mieux Project (http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com) that people have and do take notice.

I found that Phyllis E. Wachter references one of my Lewis Carroll pieces, which is very nice of her and all but that the website that used my work does not let me into read it without registering or something to Project Muse and more, shouldn’t have Ms. Wachter been in touch with me if she were going to reference me in a way enough to warrant it appearing on Google? I’m flattered and I mean no offense, but I have a right to see this work? After all, did I make Ms. Wachter register to see mine and while I am grateful for the credit, shouldn’t some real contact have been made?

I discovered that I am on Ask.com, various encyclopedias, that my poetry is used by various wedding chapels and at the other end of the spectrum, funeral homes (none of these places bothered to contact me and ask or even tell me which poems they were or are using.) I don’t mind that they are using them. I take it as a good sign that my work is that touching, frankly, but it would be nice to be contacted about all this in the future, so contact me.

I’ve also found myself on Zoom several times, and the information is correct and one flattering reference that refers to me as “the gorgeous one on the left” so I’m assuming it links to some photograph and while I don’t particularly see myself as such, it’s nice to be seen as such by some other, so I’ll take that.

Naturally, there is the Bob Dylan connection, so that brings up a lot of information – the expectingrain.com articles that I’ve contributed, the 33.1/3 blog from Continuum-Books which is flattering that they quote my review from Blogcritics which leads me to Blogcritics and the many articles I’ve written for the sinister cabal and my friend and editors Eric Olsen and Lisa McKay over there. There is also Ourmedia, Teleread, various podcasts that I have done that have pinged and ponged all over the place, not to mention Technorati and Delicious and surprisingly and occasionally and again flatteringly, those personal sites of people I do not know who list me among their favorite writers alongside such names as Plath, Nabokov, and the like. I doubt I belong in such company, but I’ll sit there gladly.

I did find my first book listed as a signed collector’s item on one site and wondered who had signed it since I don’t remember signing that many copies, so I wondered who had forged my signature and was selling off copies for some absurd price (take heed). I also noted that the first print-run of that book, Eels, which I was told was sold out and there were no more books by that publisher, just happens to be everywhere I look, so I guess there are copies after all, but since the copyright remains with me, then it’s time for a new edition and we’ll see who publishes that.

Moving on, if I’m cross-referenced with Lewis Carroll, on whom I am working on a biography for Continuum-Books, New York / London, then I’ll get hits there and am referenced on is Wikipedia page, and speaking of Wikipedia, I found that there are entries about me in different languages, but since I can’t read the text (I think one was Arabic and one Greek or Russian perhaps, I honestly couldn’t tell, so pardon my ignorance), I have no idea what they say.

I do know that the Wikipedia entry on me in the U.K. and U.S. is for the most part, accurate and seems to change and build on a pretty regular basis. I do not know who updates it – likely a number of different people. It’s not the information I would have necessarily wanted there, but it is at least all true, so no complaints on that. My only wish would be that there were a good photograph to go along with it, which is the photograph on this site, so if you’re reading this and you know Wiki, you have my full-permission to use this image.

My favorite part is perhaps Google Images. I find images that relate to articles I have written, which makes perfect sense, and then I find random images and wonder where they were sucked from. I have no idea how they got them. Obviously, they were or are on the net somewhere, but where? And who put them there? And if I did, I know I took them down, so they are like ‘ghost images’.

For example; a silver-gelatin looking print in which I look very happy (fine with me), images from Dylan articles, film reviews (Betty Blue, Dirty Pretty Things, Lost in Translation, The Mothman Prophecies, A Beautiful Mind… etc etc…), Sylvia Plath for the Plath/Hughes site that I run, as well as Lewis Carroll of course, and I mentioned Bob Dylan already. The two big guns: Lewis Carroll (on whom I am now writing a book) and Bob Dylan (on whom I am writing a book as soon as I am done with the Carroll). So the images add up – there seems to be some logic there, apart from the Amazon.com images which show random people tagged “Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti” who are very clearly not me and I have no idea of the connection, but oh well. They seem, surely are, nice enough. Oh, and several images from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. That makes sense as well, given what I have written about in the past.

In articles I have found several feminist newspapers but that’s hardly surprising and makes total sense given my writings on pornography and censorship and how it’s impossible and blah blah blah to single out one article or one form or the press without implicating the rest of the media. A slippery slope indeed, no pun, though I am pleased to report in my most recent Googling I found very little pornography and more feminist issues. What I can’t sort out is this: one day I find I get 70,000 hits on Google or 90,000 or more. Today I Googled and got a paltry 48,000. How does that work? I do realize that my output has been less prolific because I’m teaching and hence, writing less for online publications and am also working on a book, so my time is limited, but why would the existing Google hits take a dive? If you know the answer to this, explain away because I’m at a loss…

There are of course, many other instances of random hits, and I could name them all ~ but I’m still going through them and it seems never ending. Where does the real me end and the Google me begin? It’s a good question. I am Googled therefore I am.

I’m still searching for the answers: Give me ten more minutes on Google.

image: french blue s.r.p. (will this appear on Google?)