An acquaintance at a funding agency emailed me today, asking if I had contact information for a researcher I’d never heard of. I didn’t, obviously, so I Googled the person’s name from the search box on my browser toolbar. The first page of hits on the main Google page were all for an actress (who I’d also never heard of) who has the same name as the researcher in question.<\/p>\n
A young and attractive actress.<\/p>\n
Undeterred, I initiated my standard response of typing in the researcher’s main field after the name that was still in the search box.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the researcher’s main field is breast cancer.<\/p>\n
The Google Instant<\/a> hits for “YoungAttractiveActressFirstname Secondname” breast<\/strong> were, um, interesting.<\/p>\n Just another occupational hazard.<\/p>\n (As it turns out, my acquaintance was actually thinking of a researcher with the same surname and first initial as the actress in question, but with a different first name. I did<\/em> have her<\/em> contact information, and her<\/em> Google Instant hits are much<\/em> more conventional).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An acquaintance at a funding agency emailed me today, asking if I had contact information for a researcher I’d never heard of. I didn’t, obviously, so I Googled the person’s name from the search box on my browser toolbar. The … Continue reading