Word Spy - Googleganger

Googleganger

n. A person who has the same name as you, and whose online references are mixed in with yours when you run a Google search on your name. Also: Google-ganger. [Google + doppelgänger]

Example Citations:

The point is, when you Google yourself, it's a bit of a blow to your ego when you discover that: A) your name isn't unique, and B) other people have done more with it than you. These are your so-called Googlegangers, from the German "doppelgänger."
—Casey Phillips, "Reflections in an online mirror," Chattanooga Times Free Press, April 16, 2010

Lorraine Sommerfeld is a psychiatrist in Amarillo, Texas. Lorraine Sommerfeld is also a writer in North Dakota for a rural publication called Prairie Business Magazine. Lorraine Sommerfeld in Saskatoon has a Facebook page. These are my Googlegangers.
—Lorraine Sommerfeld, "Finding an identity that's right as Raine," The Toronto Star, April 21, 2008

Earliest Citation:

We're Googlegangers, doppelgoogles, or as a New Yorker magazine cartoon aptly put it: Google doppelgangers. We're virtual duplicates revealed through the Internet — with the particular help of the supremo search engine Google.
—Robin Pascoe, "I had lunch with my Google doppelganger," The Globe and Mail, November 27, 2003

Notes:

Categories:

Internet
People

Posted on February 8, 2011