An open book.
The first reference I found to Googling someone was almost three years ago, though of course most of us were looking up old friends, and ourselves, well before then. Judging from the number of references to the practice, it seems to have become a well recognized pastime.
The difference between vanity searching (and looking up old friends) and googling someone, however, wasn't only that googling has become a fad. The earlier version was a weekend fishing trip during which we had lots of time. We could cast our rods and leisurely hope for a bite. Googling someone, on the other hand, took on a certain immediacy. We needed information on someone because we had to make a decision, because we had to be in control. And we knew that in this way we could find something significant.
It's hard to tell just how extensive this phenomenon is. Google him shows up (in a Google search, of course) about 1000 times. I googled him shows up about 450 times. Interestingly, though google her also has about 1000 hits, many of these seem to be in German, where actually it's something like "Hvad sker der med Google? -- her kommer sk?" (which I don't understand, but is clearly different than what I was looking for). I googled her only shows up about 250 times. Maybe it's a phenomenon that peaked long ago already.
Still, what happens if you google someone and discover that he or she isn't on the web? What then? And what happens if you google yourself and you're not there. Have you lost your identity?
Go to: I search, therefore I am?