February 6, 2011 7:41am by David Farrar

Googlegangers

Have you ever Googled your name and come up with a Canadian porn star, a Chilean accountant and a Scottish chicken farmer? And none of them was you?

These people are your googlegangers, a term named yesterday the Macquarie Dictionary word of the year.

It’s a noun, meaning ”a person with the same name as oneself, whose online references are mixed with one’s own among search results for one’s name”.

Dictionary editor Susan Butler said it was a neat and witty blend of the words Google and doppelganger.

I like it. I have a fair few Googlegangers. There’s the former English actor. Also the Provost of the University of British Columbia. And an Appeal Court Judge in Nova Scotia. Oh yeah sadly a David Farrar was also a murder victim a while back in the US.

And also in the news a bit, is the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Director.