Comments on: Is Google A Dater’s Best Friend?

By: Endora

Endora — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:04:28 +0000

I think it makes all the sense in the world.

I’m currently apartment hunting in a new city, and I’ve been checking out all the people who offer me a room on Google, and decided *not* to visit certain flats on that basis, let’s just leave it there…

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:23:27 +0000

@Mackey: When it’s a blind date where you don’t have the f2f google available (great term, btw!), the safety issue is key. Internet dating sites are a prime example. I think everyone should Google away in those cases.

By: Mackey

Mackey — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:27:24 +0000

If there’s a tool that helps with issues of personal safety, I have no problem using it and have done.

I’ve also learnt that google works best for people that have an interwebs presence.

The current person I’m seeing doesn’t (by choice strangely enough), but I still tried the “f2f google” method of asking mutual friends etc before embarking.

By: Dutchie

Dutchie — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:01:20 +0000

I don’t really date, but when I like a guy I definitely google him. Maybe not the best thing to do, ’cause it gives me a false sense of knowing him, but on the other hand it’s also a way to see if he is worth the trouble.

I am looking for a new place to live, and around here we have a system that you get invited by people living in a house with a vacant room for an ‘interview’. When I have a name of one of the people in the house beforehand, I always look them up on internet. It’s really practical, because on sites like facebook it’s quite easy to judge whether you’d fit in. It saves a lot of time

By: DangerMouse

DangerMouse — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:22:46 +0000

One of my friends has been asked out in the past week by a convicted flasher AND a convicted girlfriend beater. Thanks, google, for keeping those guys away from her.

By: annimal

annimal — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:50:06 +0000

I agree it’s common sense to Google someone before or in the early stages of dating. I once got stood up by someone I met in an online dating site. I only knew his first name and his profession, which were both relatively uncommon, but something was not quite checking out in his story and I was annoyed . A quick Google check revealed that he was 10 years older than he claimed, as well as a picture of him wearing a wedding ring. Whew! I should’ve done this before I agreed to meet him.

By: AuntieM

AuntieM — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:13:38 +0000

It would be foolish to not take advantage of of this resource, especially in this day in age. Am happily married so out of the dating loop. As for the rest of you single folks, Please be careful.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:53:16 +0000

@ML. Mmm…crab rangoon.

My feeling about personal blogs is that if you put something on the internet under your own name, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Hence, why we all blog pseudonymously here. If a prospective date googled my real name, he’d come up with a lot of hits about my professional life, but nothing that connects me to this blog. I want to be able to tell someone about that in my own time, once I know it’s safe, since I’ve had some rather unpleasant dudes try to stalk me via the internet by using this site.

By: ML

ML — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:26:50 +0000

I really hate the idea of over-researching things you’d like someone to be able to tell you themselves over crab ragoons, but ever since the one time I realized a blind date set up was a sex offender by googling his name, I have never felt guilty about it. There is a difference between finding out enough to know you aren’t in an unsafe situation and completely ruining your prospective sweetie’s stories about backpacking through Malaysia. That said, I try to draw the line with personal blogs and things of that nature.

By: sybann

sybann — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:20:05 +0000

I just don’t understand women who don’t do research on men before they go out with them. And I really didn’t get the animosity towards “Karen” for encouraging the douche she was considering to check her out. We’re busy – why not save time and hassle (and possible injury added to insult if he’s a disgusting pig) by doing your due diligence?