“In the US Google has mutated into a verb. Singletons will ‘google’ a new boyfriend or girlfriend — run their name through a search engine — to check them out. People now talk about ‘googling’ and ‘being googled…’ And singer Robbie Williams says US women who initially reject his amorous advances often have a change of heart when they run his name through a search engine. ‘I’ve since been told: ‘That girl googled you because she knows who you are now.’ So hurrah for googling!’ says Williams. ‘Science got me laid.’” — BBC News (UK)

Fame is an aphrodisiac, and Google has become a very practical way to measure fame, so it should come as no surprise that Google, in a weird way, should act as an aphrodisiac. In the information age, links are sex appeal itself.

No doubt this formula will become even more relevant as web-enabled cell phones and mobile devices become more popular. It’s easy to envision how this will work. You’re in a bar. You meet somebody. He seems kind of interesting, but you’re not quite sure — so you excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. You hunker down in a toilet stall and “google” your new friend. What’s his search rank? Does he have his own site? How many other sites link to him? Has anybody ever flamed him? Do his pictures come up in an image search? Can you see what his former girlfriends looked like so you can compare yourself to them? (It’s a competitive edge if you’re better looking than his previous girlfriends, and vice versa.) Is it “slumming” if you sleep with somebody who’s never been cross-linked? Are your search rankings compatible?

Of course, the risk with this approach is that it would be possible to artificially make yourself famous through Google alone. You could register a hundred domain names, write flattering articles about yourself, insert yourself at the top of imaginary best-dressed lists, manipulate pictures to show yourself at the Academy Awards with Nicole Kidman, and so on. If you did it cleverly enough, you’d have a bizarre “virtual” fame — kind of like that nobody actress in Los Angeles who buys billboards featuring herself, but the billboards are the only reason she’s famous. So too with this scenario: you’d be famous not only on Google but only in Google — and yet it might be just enough to get you laid.

VideoBox

It's like the iTunes Music Store for Porn. Download unlimited high-quality video for only $9.95/month.