How To Google Your Date

First off, I must admit I have Googled a date. I used the conscious excuse that I’m a writer and I do research for a living. But to be honest, I wanted to know the guy I was about to go to the dog park with wasn’t a complete psychopath.

Here’s my journey of Googling a date — let’s call him Fred.

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Fred lived in my neighborhood.

I knew this because after I met him at Target, I saw him riding his bike past my house.

I wanted to know if Fred was a homeowner, so I went to my county’s property appraiser’s website and typed in his name. Voila! Fred was a homeowner living two streets away.

It made me feel better knowing he was responsible and owned his own home.

Next, I did a Facebook search.

Fred’s profile was public, so I could look at his newsfeed and browse through his pictures. Fred liked to cook, travel and had a dog.

I considered these good things. There was no way a serial killer could make mussels fra diavlo, right?

I also knew Fred went to the same college as me, so I Googled his name and the name of our school.

Up popped his major and a newspaper article with a quote from him. This was also good news.

Additional sites.

There are a bunch of sites online that are great for finding out the nitty-gritty on a possible love interest.

These include whitepages.com, the local police log, his name plus his hometown (if you know it), his name under an images search (you never know what you’ll find) and LinkedIn.com.

While you will find some great info about this new guy, you have to remember he doesn’t know you know.

This means when you’re finally on your date with him, you have to watch what you say.

If he says, “Oh, I bought my first house at 25. It’s in your neighborhood.” Don’t respond, “Ya, I know.”

You need to act surprised when he tells you something you already knew.

If you are getting anxiety because you searched a date online, then maybe broach the subject with him in a cute and funny way.

Say something like, “I wanted to make sure you weren’t a serial killer, so I Googled you. I’m impressed you were the captain of the football team in high school.”

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He’ll either think, “Wow! She’s really into me” or “Wow! This chick is nuts.”

Just be prepared that he may think you’re a total stalker, or maybe you’ll both have a good laugh because he did the same thing.