I thought of another way to vanity search or check on someone’s popularity on the web. Instead of just googling your name, start typing in the search box in Firefox or on google.com now that Suggest seems to be a standard feature.
How many letters do you have to type before your name pops up? In my case I have to type “Brian Linz” before I get, “Brian Linzy”. Also, once your name appears how much of it do you have to type for it to come to the top of the suggestion list? And finally, if you submit the search does it suggest another name, like “Did you mean: brian lindsay”?
What does it say about you if google doesn’t even recognize you exist?
If google doesn’t recognize that you exist there’s a good chance you don’t.