12 thoughts on “alter egos”

1. I was surprised and frustrated to learn that ianhealy.com was not available because it had been snagged up by an Australian cricket player. *sigh* What’s a fellow to do except use his middle initial?

   Ian

2. Ian,

   I think that’s pretty cool (although yes, I understand the frustration). Any sort of promotion/link exchange you think he might do for you? Think he might be interested in reading your work?

   XX

3. Amanda,

   No need to have Amanda Brooks do a photo shoot for you. You are just a pretty, no, prettier, then her.

   This is not something I have had to worry about, if you search for my name, almost everything that comes up is me.

   This is going to get to be more of an issue as time goes by, and what is going to be interesting is someone does a search and fires or does not hire someone because they found information about the wrong person with the same name.

   Robert.

4. Robert,

   Oh, you misunderstood. One of the links goes to a photographer named Amanda Brooks — she’s the one I was wondering that I should hire. (No, I have no desire to spend money on a model to “be” me!)

   You have a pretty unique last name and that’s good for you (or bad, depending). And there are cases of mistaken idenity already. One recent article I read was written by a woman who shares a name with a porn star. Her mother found the porn star references online and thought it was her daughter (without checking out the pictures and assuming her daughter wasn’t using a stage name — sounds like my mom).

   I feel people are leaving enough incriminating evidence online already and then are stupidly surprised when their employers find those party pix. [shaking my head at this] I don’t understand. I think in another 10 years or so, the real mark of the elite will be NOT showing up on a Google search.

   XX

5. Amanda,

   Ah, you meant that Amanda Brooks, I thought you meant the other Amanda Brooks, silly me. 🙂

   Yeah, I guess having a unique name would be bad if there were things I did not want people to know about. I can’t say “that’s not me is the other Robert”, since there are none. Oh well I guess I just can’t do anything I might be embarrassed about later.

   Robert

6. Amanda,

   I actually found your sight while googling myself a few years back…I was intrigued and amused immediately. I was a little worried because i was moving from Ohio to Texas and feared i’d already have a reputation as the texas golden girl. It’s still a fun little story to tell people. I really enjoy your writing and try to check your page as often as possible. All the best!

   Amanda

7. Amanda,

   Thanks for the story! I try not to do anything to embarrass myself, so you shouldn’t have a lot to worry about. (I can promise there will be no “private films” released.)

   Does make good party conversation though.

   XX

8. “. But our Mrs. Brooks laughed off the confusion yesterday. “Maybe she [the call girl] is the real Amanda Brooks,” she told Page Six. “She gets more Google hits than I do.””

   Hehe. At least she didn’t make a catty remark. That’s good!

9. Aspasia,

   Yes, at least she was nice about things. I’ve already seen comments otherwise over the past couple years (not by her, by bloggers and forum-posters).

   XX

10. Amanda has been Googling herself… =)

    When I do, many “alter egos” pop up (I have a common name) and there is freedom in that. I see this as the antidote to the loss of privacy caused by the information revolution. Information overload. Any bit of intel on the real me (still have to find one) would be drowned out by the rest of the “noise”.

    Of course, this might be frustrating to someone trying to gain notoriety.

11. Hobbyist,

    I do indeed Google myself.

    But…I’ve outsmarted myself too. My escort site does not rank nearly as high as this and my book’s site. In fact, it was nearly impossible to find when I put it up last year. I was moaning about that for a while.

    XX

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