Yes, I googled once this week and was thrilled with the result that popped up!
You can say I am vain but probably it is more a digital age’s pleasure.
You can also say it is a paranoid thing to do (googling yourself) but after the court asked Google and Yahoo to compensate a Melbourne man A$425,000 in two separate lawsuits recently for linking him to one of Australia’s most notorious underworld figures, it is perhaps justifiable to find out who you are in the Google search engine.
Melbourne resident Milorad Trkulja was in a restaurant with his mother in 2004 when he got shot in the back by an unidentified hitman. He survived the attack but the crime was never solved although he reportedly knew who shot him.
The shooting was reported in Melbourne Sun Herald and the article posted on various websites devoted to crime in Melbourne.
Trkulja, a former music promoter and prominent member of Melbourne’s Yugoslav community, claimed a Google search of his name linked him to the same league as Tony Mokbel, an alleged murderer and a drug trafficker, and Dennis Tanner, an alleged murderer.
The search engine implied he was a figure so prominent in the underworld that his rivals hired a gunman to kill him.
According to Trkuja, this led people to conclude that he was also a criminal when he was actually a victim to an unsolved crime. He claimed it did so much damage to his reputation that one couple refused to sit next to him at a wedding.
He contacted the Internet giants and requested them to take remedial action which was not entertained.
He brought a landmark case and sued Google and Yahoo for defamation. Subsequently, the court asked Google and Yahoo to pay him A$200,000 and A$225,000 respectively in two separate defamation suits.
Google argued it was not its fault, claiming it merely picked up stuff other people had produced which, it pointed out, was a reflection of the content and information available on the Internet.
However, Justice Barry Beach rejected Google’s argument and put the search engine in the same category as a newsagent that distributed papers and magazines, saying the man was “entitled to an award of damages that vindicates him.”
This was not an isolated case. Google was not only facing this lawsuit.
The former First Lady of Germany Bettina Wulff has also filed a lawsuit against Google for ‘autocompleting’ the search when her name was entered into the search engine with “prostitute” and “escort.”
If you google regularly, you would have noticed how Google “autocompletes” your search by giving you many suggestions.
Google said the suggested “autocomplete” emanated from the searchers’ curiosity and not Google’s assessment.
Have you found a reason to ego-surf and see how the Internet “brand” you online? I did so once, just once!
And Yes, I was thrilled to find another “me” through the magical Google search engine. And that “me” is all over cyberspace.
The animated Me dot com homepage invited me to enter to discover a brilliant young magician.
Australian author Geoffrey McSkimming has written a book titled Phyllis Wong and the forgotten secrets of Mr Okyto.
The book was introduced this way: “When a series of seemingly incomprehensible robberies takes place in the city, Phyllis realises there is much more to the crimes than meets the eye. It may be baffling her friend chief inspector Barry Inglis but Phyllis is determined to find out more.”
Geoffrey had been appearing in bookshops and schools in Australia in August and September this year to read to the public in conjunction with the publication of his first Phyllis Wong story.
I dropped an email to him, and he promptly replied:
Thanks for your email and I’m glad you are excited to find another Phyllis! My Phyllis Wong is a young magician who thinks in a brilliant fashion, and uses her detection skills to try to solve mysteries that are happening all around the city where she lives.
The first story, Phyllis Wong and the Forgotten Secrets of Mr Okyto, has recently been published and already gone into second printing, and I’m here in Paris at the moment working on the second Phyllis Wong story which will be published next year.
You’re not the first Phyllis Wong to find me. Another Phyllis Wong – a photographer from Sydney – has made contact through Facebook and she likes the story. She also found out about this by Googling her name.
I used the name because it sounds lovely. I find the hardest thing for me as a writer is to come up with the best names for my characters (I’ve written over 21 books) and Phyllis Wong is just right for the young girl magician-detective. It sounds perfect.
I’m glad you don’t mind that she is your name-sake. I think you will be proud of her. Her great grandfather was one of the world’s most famous and successful magicians before his mysterious disappearance on stage way back in 1936, and Phyllis has inherited his love of conjuring from him.
There is surely no cause for me to take up a case against Google. But one could expect with the precedence of Trkulja Vs Google & Yahoo, the courts worldwide will be busy with such lawsuits if the Internet law remains as it is or the search engines do not modify their search results.
Until then, try googling yourself!
As for me, I will continue to enter the magical world of Phyllis Wong and who knows, I might even find a clue from the other “me” to the missing pieces our cops are still searching for in attempting to solve the recent open shooting cases in the major cities of the state!