Study finds more Americans searching online for information on themselves

NEW YORK -- More Americans are Googling themselves -- and many are checking out their friends, co-workers and romantic interests, too.

In a report released Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47 percent of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.

That is more than twice the 22 percent of users who did in 2002, but Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised the growth wasn't higher.

"Yes it's doubled, but it's still the case that there's a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines," she said. "Certainly awareness has increased, but I don't know it's necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us."

About 60 percent of Internet users said they aren't worried about the extent of information about themselves online, despite increasing concern over how that data can be used.

Americans younger than 50 and those with more education and income were more likely to self-Google -- in some cases because their jobs demand a certain online persona.

Meanwhile, Pew found that 53 percent of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else, celebrities excluded.

Often, it's to find someone they've lost touch with. But looking up information about friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors also was common.

Although men and women equally searched for online information about themselves, women were slightly more likely to look up information about someone they are dating.

In many cases, the search is innocuous, done to find someone's contact information. But a third of those who have conducted searches on others have looked for public records, such as bankruptcies and divorce proceedings. A similar number have searched for someone else's photo.

Few Internet users say they Google themselves regularly -- about three-quarters of self-searchers say they have done so only once or twice. And most who have done so consider what they find accurate. Only 4 percent of Internet users said embarrassing or inaccurate information online resulted in a bad experience.

Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to restrict who can see their profiles at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace, contrary to conventional wisdom.

"Teens are more comfortable with the applications in some ways, [but] I also think they have their parents and teachers telling them to be very careful about what they post and who they share it with," Madden said.

The telephone survey of 1,623 Internet users was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 30 last year and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.