Tried out the 'Google yourself' Activity 13 in Part 1 section 4.5.
What was revealed about me?
Expectations before doing this: I’m expecting to have some difficulty
finding references to myself, as I imagine there may be a lot of other Emma
Thomases out there.
How far down did I have to go before finding a reference to myself?
I scrolled down the first 20 pages of Google hits and couldn’t find a single reference to myself. I gave up after that. I suppose I can at least conclude that I’m reasonably anonymous.
Adding the keyword ‘Essex’ (I did my postgrad degrees at the University of Essex) did bring up my LinkedIn profile page on the first page of hits. Adding the keyword ‘Open’ (I work at The Open University) again brought up my LinkedIn profile page, as the first hit.
What was revealed about other people with the same name as me?
Mainly, that there are a lot of them.
Of the top 10 hits on ‘Emma Thomas’:
- Eight – including the first four – relate to Emma Thomas the British film producer
- One is a link to Facebook profiles of people called Emma Thomas, though it only lists five. Mine isn’t among them (I'm fairly sure I've set it as private).
- One seems to be the website of an Emma Thomas who’s Interiors Editor of Homes and Gardens magazine.
Other Emma Thomases seemingly more famous than me
- Emma Thomas, Muay Thai Fighter
- Emma Thomas, a PCSO for Pembroke (https://www.police.uk/dyfed-powys/136/team/pcso-emma-thomas/)
- Emma Thomas, an injury lawyer at Sacca Law Group in Canada http://www.saccalawgroup.com/staff/emma-thomas/
- a Mrs Emma Thomas on the staff at UWE Bristol
- Emma Thomas, a Welsh netball player
I used to wish I had a less common name (and still do sometimes), but I suppose my name has some advantages.