In past columns, I've outed myself as a girl afraid to say hi to acquaintances, a critic of Brandeis' sexual scene and a viewer of "Are You Hot?" and "The Anna Nicole Show." Can I publicly embarrass myself any more? Maybe not, but here's my valiant attempt.My name is Jamie and I'm a privacy-invading voyeur.

Is that humiliating enough for you?

Yet, I have a sneaking suspicion that most people are (almost) as bad as I am, due to the Google.com Internet phenomenon. Google has become so popular as a search engine that is has morphed into a verb - it is actually acceptable to say, "Can't find something? Just Google it."

I remember watching "Maid in Manhattan" over winter break (apparently I'm not through embarrassing myself yet) and hearing Jennifer Lopez use Google as a verb. That came a week after I read a Newsweek article about Google-mania. At that point it hit me: I was clearly not the only one using Google obsessively.

It's perfectly acceptable to use Google to assist in academic research. Or to find Web sites of businesses. But what about using it to find information about private citizens? Or yourself?

I've Googled myself many times. If you type in "Jamie Freed," you will find, besides articles about "Jamie's freed killer" and references to a few other existing Jamie Freeds, most of the references actually do relate to me.

Of course, the majority of the links are to Justice articles written by yours truly. By Googling me, you can discover that I was a National Merit Finalist at my Southern California high school and am currently a volunteer for the Brandeis study abroad office. And that I "own" the justforum listserv. Not very interesting stuff, but it gives you some small idea of my past. Still, those few online links hardly tell you anything about my personality (unless, of course, the link is to an embarrassing Justice column like this one).

I am one of the luckier people. There may be other Jamie Freeds, but at least none have unsavory reputations that some could confuse with my own. One of my friends suffers from the unfortunate problem of sharing her name with a German porn star, illustrating the dangers of relying on Googled information without more thorough fact-checking.

In the days before Google's reign, Yahoo.com was the most popular search engine. Yet, Yahoo never quite made it to verb status. I remember being an Internet voyeur, even back in the Yahoo days. Before freshman year, I looked up my assigned roommate - through Yahoo - and found that she had won a lot of science fairs and awards.

Honestly, after looking her up on Yahoo, I expected her to be a complete and utter dork. A pre-med who never left the library and couldn't stand going out to parties or hearing a pin drop in the room. Boy, was I wrong!

My freshman year roommate (now my best friend) may have won science awards, but she is also a fascinating, well-rounded person who actually ended up double-majoring in biology and politics. And running the Student Service Bureau. Hardly the nerd I had pictured based on her Yahoo listings!

A fun use of Google, when bored, is to Google some old high school acquaintances you have lost contact with. Find out if so-and-so has a Web site at her university, or, better yet, a personal blog that you can cyber-stalk her from. (Not that I would ever do this ...)

Google is so popular that Brandeis' file-sharing engine, Boogle, is clearly a play on the Google name. In addition, there is a hilarious Web site, Googlism.com, where you can type in your first name and it will give you a description of yourself based on Google hits.

For example, entering "Jamie" on Googlism.com comes up with phrases like, "Jamie is the bomb," "Jamie is a prissypants," and "Jamie is a 19-year-old student with cerebral palsy and severe mental retardation." I'll leave it to you to decide which one of these is the most accurate.

As an increasing amount of information is placed online, Google or similar search engines will only become more popular. Eventually, the majority of your past may haunt you through the Internet. Being Googled will be like receiving a dossier on a person, but one that may or may not be accurate or complete.

Until then, though, Googling is sure a lot of fun; it's a nice use of free time and an Ethernet connection. If you haven't tried it, perhaps you should start by Googling yourself.

And maybe I'll Google you.

- Jamie Freed '03 submits a column to the Justice.