After You've Googled Your Date, Check Out His Persona

After You’ve Googled Your Date, Check Out His Persona

Posted by: Ami Angelowicz Filed in: relationships
10:15AM, Friday August 21st 2009

Yesterday’s cautionary tale about Googling your date got me thinking. My last blind date (before which I did no investigation) was seriously a nightmare.

As Tom and I sat down for a glass of wine, he launched right in: “I am under investigation by the Federal Government.” I smiled and laughed. “I’m serious,” he said with a strangely vacant smile. “What for?” I asked shifting in my seat and starting to sweat a little bit. “They are accusing me of insider trading, but I’m innocent.” “Great!” I said relieved. “Unless I get indicted,” he said, “then I would go to jail.” I gulped my wine down, asked for the check, and sprinted in the rain as fast as I could to the nearest subway station.

So now my friend wants to set me up on a blind date and I want to make extra sure that I have all the dirt on this dude before proceeding. Never again will I suffer a repeat of the Tom scenario. So, following Wendy’s sage advice, I Googled this guy’s name AND email address.

Phew ... he came up clean. Good job in a creative industry, went to the same college as me, good-looking as far as Google images are concerned, and, most importantly, he doesn’t seem to be wanted or have a diaper fetish. Great! Now, because I’m paranoid – you can understand why—I decided to take my investigation to the next level and really try to find out his true colors. What else could I do, you ask? Check out his internet persona. Yes. Personas is a website that is a companion to an exhibit on display at the MIT Museum. So here’s what happens: You enter a name and Personas searches the web for information and attempts to characterize that person by making a colorful ribbon out of pre-determined categories. It’s kind of like a colorful internet background check. OMG! So cool. Check out my date’s Persona. Looks good to me. I’m glad to see that we have the music, movies, and books in common (I did my own Persona too of course). I’m thinking I’ll say yes to the set-up.

comments

Riley
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:37 am: [report]

Doesn’t work if you have a MMA fighter with your name. I’m very violent and into sports.

sweetsdjc
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:42 am: [report]

Yeah you might not want to take too much stock in this. What if your date has a common name? I tried it with my own name (pretty unique) and the blurbs that come up during the scan were accurate, but when I tried my boyfriend’s name (including middle initial!) I got all stuff on his famous grandfather. Since he is “the 3rd” I tried adding 3 AND III and got nothin.

It’s still pretty interesting.

eclare
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:52 am: [report]

I agree, I wouldn’t put too much into this project. It says it’s more of an art project, that shows people how the internet sees them. Not totally accurate.

dliasons
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:56 am: [report]

Definitely not accurate. I have a latin last name and I have a huge chunk of illegal (25%) and my record is spotless!!!!!!!

CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:58 am: [report]

All I got was 2 equal bars “Genealogy and Family”...wtf.

Riley
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:59 am: [report]

@Cheese - Even the internet finds you snore-worthy.

CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:01 am: [report]

@Riley: My blood is purer than the Aryans I guess.

Riley
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:06 am: [report]

@Cheese - Or it knows your incest secret.

EarthGoddess
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:09 am: [report]

I must be boring ... mine was 2 colors and not very exciting. Oh well.

writergirl
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:13 am: [report]

Our was very multicolored—-just based on people long dead.

mokti
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:17 am: [report]

Yes, yes… look at all the pretty colors that, odds are, have nothing whatsoever to do with your possible date.

Face it… pretty much, only celebrities will have moderately relevant bars.

AgentBeryllium
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:18 am: [report]

Apparently the guy I am dating doesn’t exists.

slip
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 10:59 am: [report]

Apparently I’m a black real estate broker from Oakland and I own half of a racehorse named “Indian Charlie.”

Who knew?

Slip

Riley
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 11:03 am: [report]

@Slip - If I do my name with the middle initial, I’m a black politician from Columbus, Ohio. Apparently very involved in the Columbus Aids Task Force.

bjoontheupside
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 11:04 am: [report]

Unfortunately, an actress has the same name as me so the “persona” is really for her. lol Oh well…

majicksand
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 11:40 am: [report]

I found people with every incarnation of my name - maiden, 1st marriage, current marriage. Apparently, I am not among them. :(

maroon
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 01:54 pm: [report]

i have quite the rainbowed persona, but the largest chunk of it is “education”, which is sadly true :(

*sam*
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 02:32 pm: [report]

I put in my bf’s name a/b 2 min ago and it’s STILL configuring!!! I didn’t realize his name was so damn popular!! and so far NONE of the ‘blurbs’ it’s posted have been him AT ALL!!

unless he’s the CEO of an internet research company AND an award winning musician with a heavy interest in philosophy. AS WELL AS a member of a fundamentalist christian group and the leader of the “who watches the watchdogs” group. all of which he’s apparently keeping from me *and* the USMC. gosh, with all of his secret lives, I’m surprised he still has time for me!!!

Mariabeth67
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 03:37 pm: [report]

I tried looking up myself on there…they couldn’t find me. Odd.

catscratchfever
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:08 pm: [report]

My boyfriend’s last name is an adjective, it made for some pretty funny results.

KeshKesh7
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 09:15 pm: [report]

Yeah, um, it says it couldn’t find any digital traces. So I went back and just did my first name (who needs a last name anyway? jk), and now it’s taking forever. Irony. I’ll get back to ya, cuz it should be interesting.