涂　青

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

In a report 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 wasnt higher.

“Yes its doubled, but its still the case that theres a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines,” she said.

Americans under 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, its to find someone theyve 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 someones 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 elses photos.

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.

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 Corps MySpace.

如今，越來越多的美國人在Google上搜索自己，還有很多人通過Google查找朋友、同事或約會對象的信息。

Pew互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和美國生活項目在上周日發(fā)布的一份調(diào)查報告中稱，47%的美國成人互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶通過Google或其它搜索引擎查找過有關(guān)自己的信息。

這一比例比2002年的22%增長了一倍多，但Pew調(diào)查中心的高級研究員瑪麗·麥登為增幅還不夠大而感到奇怪。

她說：“在Google上搜索自己的網(wǎng)民比例確實翻了一番，但調(diào)查同時顯示，目前仍有很多網(wǎng)民從未用搜索引擎搜索過自己的名字?！?/p>

年齡在50歲以下的美國人以及受教育程度和收入較高的人在Google上搜索自己的幾率更大，這是因為他們的工作有時需要在網(wǎng)上公開個人信息。

此外，Pew調(diào)查中心發(fā)現(xiàn)，53%的成年網(wǎng)民承認自己曾在Google上查找過除名人以外的其他人的信息。

在很多情況下，人們這樣做只是為了尋找失去聯(lián)系的人，但也有很多人通過Google查找朋友、親戚和鄰居的信息。

男性和女性網(wǎng)民在Google上搜索自己的人數(shù)比例差不多，但女性更愛在網(wǎng)上搜索約會對象的信息。

在很多情況下，在網(wǎng)上搜索別人純粹是為了找到此人的聯(lián)系方式，并沒什么害處。但有三分之一的人這樣做是為了了解別人的公開紀錄，如破產(chǎn)及離婚紀錄等。另有相同比例的人曾搜索過別人的照片。

多數(shù)網(wǎng)民并不經(jīng)常在Google上搜索自己——約四分之三的人稱，他們僅搜索過一兩次。多數(shù)人認為他們搜索到的有關(guān)自己的信息是正確的。

該調(diào)查還發(fā)現(xiàn)，與成年人相比，青少年更希望限制別人在Facebook或Myspace等社交網(wǎng)站查看自己的個人信息。