The internet is a terrifying place.

I googled myself this morning. It's been a couple years since I've last done it, so I had no idea what would come up. Turns out, a lot. As far as I can tell, I'm the only person with my name. Anywhere. So if someone were to do a search on me, they wouldn't have to look very hard.

The search turned up links to a bunch of my online accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, and this blog. It also pulled out accounts that I haven't used in over a long time. Even my Webshots account made the list, and I haven't used that things since the end of my freshmen year in 2004. I also found items about me that I didn't know were on the web. You can see what awards I won in a few design competitions, what year and and which district I made Eagle Scout, my grandmother's obituary, and even a list of 1984 births for the county in which I was born.

I think we forget how open the internet can be. Since I'm back in full job hunting mode, I wanted to see what kind of stuff a potential employer could find out about me just by using Google. Granted, I'm not a scandalous person by any means. I don't have any arrests or charges to worry about showing up, nor do I present myself online in any way that can be taken in a negative light. But it's best to be safe as far as what you put online, because you don't know when or where it'll turn up again. The internet was made in part to make our lives easier and put the world at our fingertips. You don't want to put too much of yourself at their fingertips, though.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go post a Tweet and update my Facebook status to tell everyone I wrote a new blog entry.