Dad Google

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I received an e-mail from my dad on Friday evening with the subject heading, “Congratulations.” I figured that since I hadn’t yet spoken with him directly about my having a boyfriend, he was writing to congratulate me on that.

But no, that’s not what he was congratulating me on. The e-mail said: “Your blog made it on to Google. BTW do you know that Heartland Brewery is owned by a member of your family?”

I did know that. My third cousin (or something like that) owns the Heartland Brewery chain. That’s not my point here, though.

Upon reading my dad’s e-mail, my first thought was: Wait. My blog’s been on Google for months, ever since I removed the source code preventing search engine bots from logging my site. My second thought was: How the heck did he find my site? I’ve always been careful not to use my full name here, so that my blog wouldn’t show up in a Google search of my name.

Until I wrote this.

Originally, I’d included my whole name in that entry. I’d cut-and-pasted the entire text of the letter into my blog without even thinking about it. Sure enough, after reading my dad’s e-mail, I typed my name into Google and my blog was the first thing that came up. After just two days! Damn, Google’s fast.

I think I’d mentioned to my parents a couple of years ago that I had a “website on which I write about stuff going on in my life,” but I’d never been sure whether or not they knew the URL. I don’t know why I’ve cared. I’m 30 years old now, and it’s not like I should have anything to hide from them. I’m less comfortable with anyone from work Googling me and finding my site, however, so I’ve corrected the entry linked above. And already, my site doesn’t come up anymore if you Google me.

The Google giveth, and the Google taketh away.

I wrote my dad back, saying, in part, “How often do you type my name into Google?” He wrote back that he was searching for Chris Parnell.

Except that my referral stats show no links from a Google search of Chris Parnell.

My referral stats do, however, show a link from a Google search of my name.

And it was done from a computer at my dad’s company.

Maybe he meant “I was searching for Chris Parnell” as a joke.

That’s what I’ll keep telling myself, anyway.

6 thoughts on “Dad Google”

  1. I don’t know. That would be wierd if my dad Googled me too. I mean, he knows my life and all, and has for some years, but my website is private. I don’t know why! It’s still alot of gibberish!

  2. No site is private, unless you password-protect it. My dad is perfectly capable of Googling me, but sometimes I think he lacks that kind of curiosity. There’s definitely stuff on mine that I wouldn’t go out of my way to share with my parents or sister. I guess denial works until it doesn’t.

  3. Did he comment on anything you had written?

    I do try and keep my full name out of my blog for that very reason; I would at least like to think I could deny it was me should I have to.

  4. The only comment he made was a reminder that one of my relatives owns Heartland Brewery… and I think that whether or not I use my full name here, my photos would give me away. :) But at least you can’t Google photos.

  5. Well, actually, you *can* Google photos, but I think it searches based on the filename of the image. So, unless you have a photo uploaded with your entire name in its filename, you’re probably OK.

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