Oh, sorry, Hil, it's not you. It's the whole world's casual use of it! Sorry that I singled you out, I was actually trying to let you know I think your Google-use is completely normal and NOT stalkerish!

Unless you plan to devour him for dinner, but I doubt it since you're vegan!

Quite a way to give up being vegan.

Googlestalking =/= Stalking. It's just asking around about somebody. One of the most valuable things you can learn is just how fast and lose they run with their information on the internet.

It's just asking around about somebody.

Yep.

I facebook friended him.

Our mutual friend seems to know everybody at this conference. I have no idea how she does it. She'll see someone and go rushing up to them and tell them how great their last paper was and what they've changed about their appearance since the last time she saw them and that she saw that they're giving a talk at this conference and it looks really interesting. Meanwhile, I see someone who I met at a conference a few months ago, and we look at each other awkwardly until one of us asks, "Do I know you? You look familiar," and then we compare math histories until we figure out that we met in Kentucky last March.

Sounds like your friend is very good at networking. Though it helps if you're social to begin with, it's a skill that can definitely be developed.

Sorry, java! Understandable that stalking is perhaps a term that shouldn't be used jokingly, even in an "internetstalking" sort of way, because even in that, one can SO take it over the line, obviously!! Goodness knows, we all being very webby people know that having someone All Up In Your Internet would be Creepy and Upsetting, just to start with, even before it got really bad...I wouldn't want someone following me HERE, say, and one person who went on a date with me and told me they'd found my LJ (note: we had no mutual LJ friends) and read the whole thing (all the un-locked entries) was....lucky she was awesome, cause damn that sounded creepy!

No apology necessary. I don't want to be a jerk about it. It's a common enough usage that it probably doesn't ping anyone but me.

Again, I was just wanting to let Hil know that she wasn't out of order on her searching.

Nah, common or not, it's an important reminder to those of us who don't have reason to think as hard about the issue. I thank you for being willing to talk about your ouchy spots.

I should probably eat dinner. In fact, since I ate lunch alone, I should probably be social and call around and find out what my friends are doing for dinner. But I had a big lunch and I'm not really hungry, and I'm kind of too tired to interact with people right now, and my feet hurt. One last interview tomorrow morning, and then a bunch of interesting talks to go to, and then a math party. I can be social tomorrow night.

I thank you for being willing to talk about your ouchy spots.

Aww, thanks. That's kind of you.

In my experience, it breaks down like this:

Normal = does a casual Google search for some easy vetting

Creep = checks every page of the Google results and uses that info to feel closer to you and have hints about your life and takes advantage of the false familiarity

Stalker = all of "creep" plus intention and planning of harm