Journal: News & Comment

Which Derek am I?

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Some people think this is a well-known website. One way to check that is to see how high in Google's search results it shows up if you search for "Derek," since my name is a common one.

As of today, I'm on page three—behind actor Derek Jacobi, mathematician Derek Holt, the Hotel Derek in Houston, Derek Acorah (who talks to the dead), keyboardist Derek Sherinian ("El Flamingo Suave" is a track on his latest album), web guy Derek Powazek, and (of course) Bo Derek. But I am ahead of Derek Walcott (who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992), Derek Kew (who helps people with eating disorders by hypnotizing them), Derek Atkins (a.k.a. warlord@mit.edu), the late basketball player Derek Smith, and (oddly) New York Yankee Derek Jeter.

Not bad. My colleague Dave Shea's mezzoblue does far better in the much more competitive "Dave" search: page two and ahead of Dave Barry's official site (though not his blog), as well as Apple browser developer Dave Hyatt, and Dave Raggett, who helped develop HTML. Dave Matthews, David Letterman, Dave Winer of scripting.com, Thursby Software's DAVE application for the Mac, and Dave Sperling, who hosts an English as a Second Language resource site, all beat him in the results—at least for now.

Of course they're both imprecise measures. If my wife ever actually publicized her name online, for instance, she'd win hands down, because it's so unusual. But that's why she doesn't.

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