The universe implodes.
Not gonna do that again.
I’ve found there seem to be several people with my name; I can’t tell exactly how many. There are a few different hobbies and professions that come up, but some of them might be shared by the same person. One of them published a scientific paper. There are also some old Usenet and forum posts from when I was a teenager.
One time I actually got some emails that were intended for another person with my name, in a city in another part of the country. I was being invited to office parties and such. I eventually let them know I wasn’t him. They took me off the list, but I never found out who my Doppleganger was or how they got my email address.
If I google my real name, I get references to a book written by a relative and then tons of references to an MP in Australia, which is really cool.
Apparently I chose an unusual username, because all references but one are to me. The one not by me is pretty odd. Here it is
2003 IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory …
On-line Wavy Strip and OffKenter Analysis of High Speed Production Lines by a Linear Camera. Dynamic Visual Semoing. of. Robotic Manipulators …
IEEE Xplore Full-Text PDF: - Similar pages
by E Technologies - All 4 versions
Since I have never done any analysis of high speed production lines, I’m pretty sure that this does not refer to me. But having my name show up in an IEEE publication is pretty neat for a geek who is not an engineer of any kind, but still loves knowing how things work.
My name is exceptionally common, so what happens is I get a lot of hits for other people.
My name gets absolutely nothing, even if you include my middle name.
My username gets two SDMB threads, an XKCD thread, and a complaint on the Apple support boards asking them to fix the album artwork for Aquarium by Aqua.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Googling my real name brings up my website and some journalism/fiction I’ve written.
It also brings up a character in a prison drama of the same name, who, as the mouseover helpfully explains, was sentenced to life aged 18 for butchering her mother. I really hope prospective editors notice the site address is for a TV series…
Real name: Firstname Lastname gets about eighty entries, of which only around a dozen are me (A lot for my father, though). Firstname Middlename Lastname gets a couple of entries, Firstname Middleinitial Lastname five more.
User name: A bunch for the current Illinois politician, a bunch for the Hawaiian politician I nicked the name from, even a couple for the Rhode Island politician of the 1930s and a Doctor Who character, but no references to the board in the first fifteen pages.
Nine links, 8 of which are me, and one is a typo.
I rock.
My username just brings up my Youtube page and a couple of threads I’ve posted to here.
My real name brings up a hilariously awful poem that I wrote at the age of 12. I remember submitting it to poetry.com and being so proud of having my work on the Internet for all the world to see. Good times.
My real name gets me an Australian newscaster and a Californian comp sci professor. Used to be that one of the results was me, from a production of Romeo & Juliet I did years ago, but all references to that have since vanished into the ether.
Results for my username should be obvious. Some of them are quite likely me on various websites and message boards, but good luck finding them.
One article in the Tucson Citizen with a picture of me and tow of my friends playing the piccolo before a marching competition, if you shorten my first name you get an ePortfolio I had to post to for English two years ago.
There’s also a single facebook profile which definitely isn’t me, but it has no avatar to speak of, and his profile is locked or something (I created an account to see it, but I have to be his friend apparently). I’m guessing it’s a dummy account or something, because afaik my family is the only one in the US with our last name (according to every directory I’ve ever looked at anyway).
My real name brings up less than two full pages of links, all to dead people. Most of these are genealogical sites referencing several of my ancestors, but there are several referring to the father of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, who, so far as I know, isn’t an ancestor (although he was from the right part of England :dubious:). My username obviously isn’t going to produce anything significant :D.
I do a vanity search to test any new search engine. I know what Google finds and it’s a quick way to find out if others are any better.
My real name gives over 180,000 links. Nearly all of the first ten pages refer to me in some way (I just noticed a new alter ego showing up in a couple of places).
My SDMB name also finds me, since I use it both here and on other boards.
Finally, if you search for my blog, that’s the first thing that comes up. Also, if you google many of the movies or TV shows I discuss, you’ll find my blog listed somewhere on the first page.
Apparently there’s an Irish professor out there with my name, which is a good sign for my academic career. Also I apparently raised £300 for something or other, I did the Bank of Montreal Vancouver marathon, and I’m a chief zombie.
Well, rock. 
My real name: my name is really friggin’ common, and without qualifiers like “Indianapolis” added on will just return page after page of various authors, teachers, poets, military heroes, and doctors. And lots and lots of genealogy pages. I don’t show up for a while, despite the fact that I have a pretty large web presence if you search with the right qualifiers.
My SDMB name: I use this name across multiple message boards, so you run into those, as well as other folk who’ve taken the name over the years for their blogs… and there’s an emo band out there with my name, too.
I get the Wikipedia entry on comedic acts (i.e. straight men), followed by the Wikipedia category on Straight Man by Richard Russo. The images link has a bunch of half-naked guys, though.
i guess i have a fairly unique (but widely used by me) username because google knows a lot about me! my flickr stream, my io9.com messages, my okcupid profile, my livejournal, my wikipedia profile, my boing boing messages, my yahoo profile, lostpedia profile, and that’s just page one!
my full name gets some other random people with my name, along with my facebook profile
By searching on Google for my full name, including my middle name, I have learned that no one with that name has so far made it to the attention of the Internet, including me. If I just use my first and last name, there are many results, although I do not appear to be among them.
By searching on Google for my SDMB username, I have learned that “Terri fel” is a phrase from the medieval romance “Bevis of Hampton.” Translated from the Anglo-Norman, it means “Terry (Bevis’ squire) fell.”
In order, with my real name:
[ol]
[li]Two Facebook profiles (one of which is mine)[/li][li]Info on an innebandy player (who is not me)[/li][li]Minutes of a Board of Library Trustees meeting last year, where I said something – from my town of 3,500[/li][/ol]
Weird.