Readers of Herald columnist Julie Muhlstein in the Local section likely gasped a bit at a recent column in which she looked up her kids and some of their friends at an Internet site they thought was shielded from prying parents.
I found it interesting, and I don’t even have kids.
Then I read a wire story last week about how officials at Google aren’t talking to employees at CNET, a technology media company, because of a recent story they did on growing privacy concerns on the Internet.
CNET published all the stuff it found on Google about one of the Google founders, including his address and events he likes to attend.
It made me wonder what Google has to say about me.
So I Googled myself, coming up with a lot of hits from stories I’d done on different topics that were posted on other Web sites. The Herald rarely approves such things, but sites do it anyway.
Since journalists are likely to be all over the Web because of the stories we write, I decided to Google other members of my family. What have they been up too, I wondered
What I found was interesting, but not exactly tabloid material.
I found photos of my brother during the late ’60s when he was in the U.S. Army serving in Japan and preparing radio and television shows to entertain others in the military. That was pretty cool.
I also learned why I can almost never reach him directly on the phone, which always seems to be busy even though like me, he’s not prone to idle chatter. It turns out that while not a phone chat guy, he’s into Internet chat sites about koi, a carp that is popular in Japan for its varieties of special colors and patterns that have been produced through careful breeding over hundreds of years.
I found dozens and dozens of comments from or about my brother on several different chat groups for koi hobbyists.
It’s an interest he developed in Japan and has since become a nut, I mean expert, over the last 30 years or so. I knew he was an expert. What I didn’t know is that on the Internet, he’s viewed by many others as an expert. The chatlines are full of questions he’s answered, thanks from others for advice he’s given and more.
A number of Web sites also thank him for help he’s given in some way.
It was fun to see, actually. You know how you view friends and family. It’s not always easy to see how others view them. And it’s nice to see that most of the opinions are pretty good.
Still, it felt a little weird to be able to look into someone’s life so easily and quickly. And to know that people can do that to you.
Have you ever checked yourself out on Google? You might want to give it a shot, if only in self defense.
Seen in my local Safeway at Smokey Point: The last aisle along the produce area has an overhead sign that says snacks. The only item listed under the sign is water.
Water. A snack?
I don’t think so.
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@herald.com.
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