Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Are You Google-Worthy??

What a world. Just yesterday, my friend Carolyn mentioned the name of a well-known Jewish philosopher and then said, "he is definitely Google-worthy." And we believed that she had coined a new phrase. So this morning, I Googled the term "google-worthy" and learned that not only had a new term not been coined, but that exactly one year ago from tomorrow, Felice Cohen wrote a column about this very subject for the Jewish World Review.

I enjoyed the article but then I got to thinking (which is never a good thing!). Ms. Cohen writes:

"I Googled you," my Uncle Mark said to me. "There were lots of results. Then I Googled my brother and there were even more. Then I Googled myself and there were none." I looked up. "So you're not Google-worthy," I told him, "It doesn't matter." But for many people, it does.


The notion of being Google-worthy. Is this just some sick extention of junior high where some people are deemed worthy of attention and others are not?

Some might see it that way, but I just don't think so.

I Google everybody! From my Junior year prom date to the author of my latest literary discovery...and everyone in-between. I've even Googled myself just for fun. Thanks to Google, I've reconnected with old friends, discovered what long-forgotten classmates are doing with their lives, learned that PC was once quoted in Brand Week, and much, much more.

Google can, and should, be used as a search engine and nothing more. It should not act as a barometer of a person's worth. Nor is it any indication of one's MQ (mentchlikeit quotient).

But since we're on the subject -- who do you think is Google-worthy? The individual who was the subject of Carolyn's mention and got this entire conversation started was Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel -- who is definitely Google-worthy by anyone's standards.

Join the conversation...

4 comments:

Sheyna said...

Funny - I just read and commented in an other conversation on novelist Joshilyn Jackson's blog about Googling oneself and what that does to one's ego (definitely speaks to whether one is "google-worthy" or not!).

As I'd said on that blog, I'm just thrilled when the number of entries now spans multiple pages (even better when my Jewish novel gets multiple-page entries), but I base it entirely on quanity and not content.

I just like the increasing numbers; I don't really want to make "Googling" a topic in therapy! ;-)

Sheyna Galyan
Destined to Choose: A Rabbi David Cohen Novel
http://booksandbeliefs.blogspot.com

Rebecca Einstein Schorr said...

Me neither. Too many other worthwhile topics to cover :)

And so...is there anyone you consider Google-worthy??

:) R

Sheyna said...

Okay, I'm going to do a total cop-out and say that I think everyone, somewhere, has a story, and if Google is going to be the Ultimate search engine, then maybe everyone should be Google-worthy.

But that's one reason for blogs, right? If everyone tells their story on a blog, everyone will make it to Google. And then the Internet will implode under the weight of itself. ;-)

Rebecca Einstein Schorr said...

That's not a cop-out at all. It's the crux of my message here.

I just find it interesting to learn who people look up on Google.

OK -- I'll start:
I like to look up people from my HS and college days that I either thought were super-talented or they believed themselves to be super-talented!