The practice of “Googling” yourself – typing your name into a search engine to see what information is available about you online – has doubled in popularity in the last five years. Close to half of all adult internet users (47%) have used search engines to look up information and content associated with their names online, up from just 22%, as reported by the Pew Internet Project in 2002. Yet, most users remain humble as they go about their daily lives online; few internet users make a regular habit of their self-searching. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they monitor online information “on a regular basis,” and 22% say they search using their name “every once in a while.” The vast majority of self-searchers (74%) have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.
Younger users (under the age of 50) are more prone to self-searching than those ages 50 and older. Young adult internet users (ages 18 to 29), who often lead the adoption curve for many online activities, are just as likely as users ages 30 to 49 to search for themselves online (49% vs. 54%). And while those ages 50 to 64 have less experience with submitting a query about themselves online (39% have done so), wired seniors are the least likely to track their online trails (with just 28% of those ages 65 and older searching for their name online).
Change over time: Adult internet users are now twice as likely to use a search engine to look up their own name online.
Men and women search for information about themselves in equal numbers, but those with higher levels of education and income are considerably more likely to monitor their online identities using a search engine. While 59% of internet users with at least a college degree have used search engines to look up their own name, just 40% of users with lower levels of education have done so. Two-thirds (64%) of internet users living in households earning an annual income of $75,000 or more have at least dabbled in self-searching, while 41% of users living in households earning less than $75,000 per year have done so.
The “broadband effect”—the finding that internet users who have high-speed connections at home are more likely to engage in most online activities—also rings true with this online pastime. More than half of those with high-speed connections at home (56%) search for information about themselves using search engines, compared with one in three home dial-up users (34%).