Googling yourself

When I was talking with my dad on the phone last weekend, an interesting topic came up: Googling yourself and those you know.

We were talking about my grandpa, who has written several books and magazine articles as a railroad buff, so I decided to try to hunt down some references to him online. But, as his name is too common (Cecil Cook), Googling his name alone just won't get very many hits that are actually him. You have to throw in another relevant keyword, like Iowa or railroads. At least half of the hits on each of those pages are actually my grandfather.

(As a side note, a trip over to Amazon.com searching for his old books, which are out of print, was quite interesting. Someone is actually trying to sell "Grass Between The Rails," which he helped write, for more than $900! "Marquette" is much more reasonable, starting as low as $40.)

So, back to the point, if I have one. Obviously, Googling "Ryan Cook" will get you hundreds of people with my name and it will be hard to find the links that actually refer to me. (Just to clear things up, I am not the guy who was drafted by the Vikings, nor am I a digital effects artist.) To find some links that actually could be me, try adding Harding, China, Columbus or Newark, all of which bring up this blog as the first hit.

Now for the fun part. Enter just your name in Google in quotation marks and see how many pages of results you have to go through before you actually find a reference to yourself. (I'm on the 19th page for "Ryan Cook." Good luck with this one, Jim!)

Are there any interesting alter egos out there with your exact name? What is their claim to fame? Also, share any keyword combinations that bring you up as the first hit.