I read in one of the quizzes about cartoons and Shutupmichelle mentioned that there was a cartoon called 'shutupmichelle'. Curious I looked it up on Google and I was suprised to find all of Funtrivia Shutupmichelles info listed there. So much for hiding you identity. Thank goodness this site is so well monitored! Look up your Funtrivia Name - you may be suprised!

You're right! I googled my F.T forum name, and the first hit was my details, and the second hit was about a thread i'd created.

I'm finally popular enough to be located in a search engine!

Well I use 'Jane Marple', sometimes with numbers after it, on various websites, and game leagues. But if I did search Jane Marple, I think my alter ego, the fictional Jane Marple, would be more popular!

This is one of the reasons we tell our younger members never to give ages, real names, locations, schools in public information, and in fact to take great care when giving personal details to anyone. Adults we assume to be able to decide for themselves what they wish to divulge.

Sue, i'm always careful as to who, and what, i disclose, not only on F.T, but anywhere els.

I must say though, it is very easy these days to find out someones personal information.

Too easy.

What a surprise We have just googled jill-geo and found a couple of entries into our blog and tipping comp but also there are several other jill geo's in there.

Like you have already mentioned its far too easy for others to find out your personal details.

The majority of references to 'aramis' are either mens' cosmetics or one of the 'Three Musketeers'. My forum name is in fact taken from our cat 'Aramis' who already had that name when we acquired him!
When I google my real name, the first entries are of a Jazz big band leader, still alive, performing and making records - but that's all I'm going to tell!

Yes, it is easy... thank heaven that there is not information in my blog to give my real identity away.

But it was fun to see that my forum name is more than one time around in the net!

There is a Heidi66 who knows how to repair ball-point-pens...

There are lots of ren33's (and I thought I was unique!) , even a French one!

That actually does not only work with screen names. Did you ever try to google your own (real) name? I was surprised to find out that there is a woman with my name working at a German university. (or maybe it's me, and I just don't remember.. )

When I Google my real name it is really me.

Googling my FT name also lets out my secret, not only am I an editor on FT, but I'm also an editor for Wikipedia... muhahahaha

On the other side, anyone in business (and many personal sites) offer the owner's name address and phone number. If you are in business it's almost essential and I don't know of anyone who's been harrassed as a result. Mainly most nutcases live so far away online they aren't able to come and break your windows or worse however unhinged they may be. Instead they can easily send you rude emails and only attack people within their local areas. I haven't given more than my name online, and then only in selected sites. I have been stalked and attacked by email and viruses by said lunatics but I know none could do any more than that. In fact I was considering putting my name and a few details on one website so I can get more work. If people don't know your name they won't realise if and when they come across your material elsewhere so finally there are times where you have to disclose to promote your business. People still write letters and even if not, by putting my phone number many more people would be encouraged to get in touch as some people over 30 prefer the old ways as I do. I suspect males feel less threatened, and with good reason, than females, but that's my side of it.

My name returns only info on the place/s Engadine, as my name is the outer Sydney suburb I grew up in! My real name googled doesn't find me . . . well, not on the first page . . . maybe I'm just a figment of my own imagination . . . however, another user name I have, found me in a nano-second . . .

Google loves FT. The google spider bot practically lives on the website, spidering a page every single second of every single day.

Damnsuicidalroos is a not so common name to search for so everything that comes up in a search is related to me. Most of the links (about 9000) are Funtrivia related.

Engadine I almost bought at Engadine 4 years ago but couldn`t find anything close enough to the railway station (my wife doesn`t drive) so I purchased a place at Sutherland West 1 k from Sutherland station.

I googled tiffanyram and got 5 results all of which were mine from funtrivia.

My real name turned up tons of results, but all of the ones on the first results page were other people and not myself. I guess there are a lot of me out there that are far more popular than I...sigh

lol, if you google my username, you get me, including my FT forum profile. On the second page, there's finally a single result that isn't me, and it's a random name generator that uses Tolkien's elvish language, so it doesn't surprise me that my name is there, since I made up my name using said language. Page 3 has two references that aren't me, and one's in another language. Page 4 has four, page 5 only two... Lothruin is me, and has been since 1994.

Well I was a surprise to me. Go figure -- how many jars are out there.... Anyway, I googled Jar with the _ underscore and the funtrivia link was the first to pop up. That really surprised me.

I googled my real name one time and discovered that in my other life I am a famous author. Not famous enough for me to know it though. Must have been an academic author. :-0

I never thought of googling my own name so gave it a try. The only reference to me was in www.namesdatabase.com where I have registered. Whew! But it does make you think.

ooo My real name is also a author, and also a link to a blog to a lady in America. JaneMarple brings up a lot to do with Funtrivia - my blog and posts in the forums. JaneMarple with numbers after it also brings me up too. But Jane Marple with no space brings up the original Jane Marple. Frightening really, how much I am on the Internet

Aside from my FunTriva hits, I appear to be a furniture company in Spain that makes really comfy-looking recliners.

Using my real name, I get a bunch of hits from postings I've made on genealogy forums, and several women who have my name with another name added (My Name Jones, etc). One of them is a jockey, which is particularly thrilling to me.

hi all
what a distinct shock (to find the following):"Results 1 - 10 of about 4,930 for drbobwill. (0.46 seconds)"
perhaps you will be equally amazed when you google your screen name.
(on rereading, the above now sounds to me something like the chinese curse:"may you live in interesting times!"