daphne Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 I have on occasion when I knew their full name. I happened to enter the online handle and found out that I was definitely incompatible with sex profile guy. I will be on the alert next time as well. It seems a lot of people like to lie.
daphne Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 Like totally GOOGLE! OMG, here's why: Be safe and know! That was a funny thread. Psycho John.
hopefully Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 If you meet the person online, it's safer to google them. I once goolged a guy and found out his two different profiles. One is saying that he's looking for serious relationship, and other one is the opposite.
zengirl Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 This. I'd also much prefer it if someone who had questions about me would just ask me. What generation are you? I wonder because I get someone carhill's age not googling, or anyone older than, say, 35 right now, but with my friends (20s, some early 30s), it's just something we do. I don't know anyone who's my age and single who doesn't google prospective dates. Mostly, I don't do it because I'm terribly supicious, frankly; just because when I'm interested and excited about someone, I'll take a quick look before the date or between dates.
Chocolat Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 What generation are you? I wonder because I get someone carhill's age not googling, or anyone older than, say, 35 right now, but with my friends (20s, some early 30s), it's just something we do. I don't know anyone who's my age and single who doesn't google prospective dates. Mostly, I don't do it because I'm terribly supicious, frankly; just because when I'm interested and excited about someone, I'll take a quick look before the date or between dates. Hi ZG, I suppose it could be a generational thing, but, for me, I think it is more just about how I approach dating. For one, while I realise that people lie, it seems to me that the stuff I'd be checking Google for is the stuff that's pretty easy to find out in a few dates. The times in my life when my heart has gotten truly stomped, the cause was not from anything Google would have told me. For another, I don't do the online dating thing. It feels too contrived for me and, so far, I have had no shortage of good men approaching me in other places where I am able to learn about them in context before I have to make a decision about going on a date. (This is not a knock at online dating; it just isn't my thing.) I have Googled myself in the past and if you know my full name and location you can find me. But if you were to Google my first name and location without my last name (a likely scenario for a date), you'd stumble on the site of a woman in my town who shares my first name and has a blog expressing her views on politics, health, relationships, you-name-it. Not only are her views diametrically opposed to mine, but she appears a little unhinged imo. So I am also sensitive to the limitatons of Google. I guess the bottom line for me is that there is a level of suspicion associated with Googling someone that I don't share -- it's not the right mindset for dating. I understand you don't use Google in this way but is that true of others?
EasyHeart Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 As someone else mentioned, it seems especially important to do some research on people you meet online. I've learned on LS that lots of people in the online dating world lie about pretty much everything. It's similar to asking friends about a person that you meet socially. If I meet a woman at a party or friends, I'll ask mutual friends about her. And I know for a fact that pretty much every woman whom I meet through friends does the same -- she asks our mutual friends about me before going out with me. I think searching the internet is just a quicker way of doing the same thing.
carhill Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 TBH, the most important and over-arching lies women have told me, that being marital status, won't be found on Google. That type of information is only found at places like courthouses. The rest I find through interaction. I've been using the internet since well before Google even existed. Lycos, Dogpile, InfoSpace, Yahoo.... I remember when they were all new. I still smile when I come across GeoCities sites. Those were the days. As a feature of my generation, I still tend to trust people and myself to be a reasonable judge of character. In general (not in romance) it has served me well. YMMV
mtber75 Posted February 16, 2011 Posted February 16, 2011 I always google a prospective date, and I google him again if I find out more information later in the relationship (e.g. if I find out he has another email address or a screenname). Usually I don't find anything suspicious, but one time I googled a guy's screenname and found a web page with photos of him and his girlfriend! I matched the girl's face to one of his Facebook friends, and when I clicked on her page it wasn't privacy protected, and she was listed as being in a relationship with him! Yep, he had a long term girlfriend who he'd been with for four years, and he had hidden his relationship status from me! At this point I'd been dating him for two months and I was pretty angry and upset. The moral of the story is, you should always google anyone you date. You never know what you might find, and it's better to know about stuff than to be in the dark. I sometimes google a potential date. But I prefer that person to tell me directly. About the long term gf! There probably a story behind this? Did you confront him about it? Maybe she's a psyho b*tch who won't let go? I mean if you have to go behind a person's back to dig information about that person, you have some insecurity issues!
zengirl Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 I guess the bottom line for me is that there is a level of suspicion associated with Googling someone that I don't share -- it's not the right mindset for dating. I understand you don't use Google in this way but is that true of others? A lot of my friends and I -- male and female -- will google someone just because we're excited about them. I don't see most of my friends (exceptions exist for sure!) as terribly 'suspicious' people. So, I think there are two camps. My BF has an adorable tech blog I found via google. I did read some of the archives there when we were early dating, but I'm a word-nerd, and reading someone's writing helps me get a good sense of them. For me, it was just a fun way to be excited about a new guy. A lot of my friends will google a guy/gal to show me his/her pictures or whatnot. Especially with Smart Phones and iPads everywhere. If I ask a friend what their date looked like, I'm likely to see a FB picture of them, rather than get a description. That just seems like the norm to me.
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