History Main / GooglingTheNewAcquaintance

* ''Film/Catwoman2004'' had Detective Lone Google the artwork on Patience Phillips' walls after meeting her.

* Tony Stark did this with Black Widow in ''Film/IronMan2''.
* In ''[[Literature/Twilight2005 Twilight]]'', Bella searches about vampires after hearing Jacob Black describe the local legends about them. She tries to put two and two together to figure out what Edward really was.
* Used as a gag in ''Film/AmazonWomenOnTheMoon'' (predating the World Wide Web!) when a woman runs a background check on a blind date. Things don't go well.
* In ''Film/DeskSet,'' the woman who runs the reference desk of an international corporation has lunch with a consultant who's been dropped into her lap. She proceeds to demonstrate the power at her command by giving him a biography of his life.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' Tash meets a man [[YouHaveToBelieveMe who everyone agrees is crazy]]. She's told he's the sole survivor of a ComingInHot situation, his mind snapped, and if he leaves [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace D'vouran]] he'll be apprehended by the authorities. She accesses the Holonet to look up records on him and finds that they match what she's been told, but notices a program attached to the records that alerts someone that she's accessed them, and naturally Tash finds this suspicious.

* On ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' a patient Dr. Kelso is treating finds information about him and her medical condition via her smart phone, faster -and more accurately- than he was telling her. Being somewhat behind the times, he had no idea how she was doing it until Dr. Cox mentioned it as something patients have started doing.

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/GarfunkelAndOates's aptly named song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImoOi1wzfEk Google]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'': When the archaeologist Carter Hall asks Hawkgirl out on a date (and she accepts), Batman looks up the man online--and finds that he has a long history of starting {{flame war}}s by white knighting on [[{{Hatedom}} "I hate Hawkgirl"]] web forums. This is the first evidence that Carter is a little bit obsessed with Hawkgirl.

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Bella searches about vampires after hearing Jacob Black describe the local legends about them. She tries to put two and two together to figure out what Edward really was.

-->--Music/GarfunkelAndOates, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImoOi1wzfEk Google]]"

->Everybody Googles each other\\

To make sure that we don't get raped

* Employers have the right to check a potential employee's Facebook page (just as anyone does by simply typing someone's name into the search bar), but it is illegal to ask for the applicant's profile name and password. If the employer insists on seeing it, he has to allow you to log in personally. More on Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_concerns_with_social_networking_services#Employment here]].

* The InNameOnly ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' movie had Detective Lone Google the artwork on Patience Phillips' walls after meeting her.

** Of course, this works two ways: it's a lot easier to keep track of who might be associated with a biker gang when the first thing someone who's patched in does is take selfies with the boys at the celebration.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]]: When companions Yaz and Ryan go undercover as reporters to interview billionaire Daniel Barton, he looks up "Sofia Afzal" and "Logan Jackson" on his phone to be sure they are who they say they are. Since the Doctor and company happen to be working with [=MI6=] in this story, Yaz and Ryan's covers possess an online presence that ensures Barton finds nothing amiss.

* Police going undercover to infiltrate criminal organizations have discovered this becoming a problem. Creating a false identity is harder because crooks can, and will, check to see if someone has an online presence and thus existed, before meeting them. It also means undercovers tend to be paranoid about being in pictures taken at official functions because those types of things often end up on department webpages where anyone can see them.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]]: When companions Yaz and Ryan go undercover as reporters to interview billionaire Daniel Barton, he looks up "Sofia Aswal" and "Logan Jackson" on his phone to be sure they are who they say they are. Since the Doctor and company happen to be working with [=MI6=] in this story, Yaz and Ryan's covers possess an online presence that ensures Barton finds nothing amiss.

Sometimes, after meeting somebody, you get that weird...vibe about them. Or maybe, you're simply intrigued about them. You want to know everything you possibly can about them, so that's when you decide to log in to your computer and search their name. More often than not, your search [[{{Unperson}} returns nothing]], prompting you to want to know more about them. Sometimes, you get results, but [[DidntSeeThatComing they were nothing like you were expecting]]. This is often how attraction starts between characters, prompting them to want to get to know you. If the person you're searching has a pretty common name, but you still manage to find information on him, that's ItsASmallNetAfterAll.

[[folder:Film]]

* During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' Tash meets a man [[YouHaveToBelieveMe who everyone agrees is crazy]]. She's told he's the sole survivor of a ComingInHot situation, his mind snapped, and if he leaves [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace D'vouran]] he'll be apprehended by the authorities. She accesses the Holonet to look up records on him and finds that they match what she's been told, but notices a program attached to the records that alerts someone that she's accessed them, and naturally Tash finds this suspicious.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]], the first episode of the new series, Rose looks up "the Doctor" shortly after meeting him. When that predictably gives her a huge bevy of irrelevant results, she tightens the search to "Doctor Blue Box", and finds a related website with improbable ease.

* In the first episode of the revived ''Series/DoctorWho'', Rose looks up "the Doctor" shortly after meeting him. When that predictably gives her a huge bevy of irrelevant results, she tightens the search to "Doctor Blue Box," and finds a related website with improbable ease.
* Relied upon for the 'Lorenzo von Matterhorn' play from Barney's Playbook in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' to work.
** Also invoked in one episode where Ted mentions how dating isn't like it used to be since people can find out all sorts of things about you before you even go on a first date. So when he asks out the chick of the day, they decide to make a pact not to google each other before their date. Naturally his friends being the nosy-nellies that they are (even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Robin's current therapist boyfriend) Google her instead. Commence them freaking out and trying to get Ted to look at what they found. He finally caves in, and instead of it being awful, it turns out the girl is a rocket-scientist-baby-saving-extremely-wealthy-miracle woman. So Ted blows the date by having an inferiority complex.
* Watson does this with Sherlock Holmes in the first episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', which brings him naturally to Holmes' website.
* In ''Series/{{Elementary}}'', on the other hand, Holmes has already Googled Watson before meeting her in person, resulting in this gag that [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil made it into the previews]]:
-->'''Watson:''' How did you know my dad had an affair?\\
'''Holmes:''' Google. ''({{beat}})'' Well, not everything is deducible.

* A variant occurs in ''Series/FlashForward2009'', when people take to checking the Mosaic website to find out about people. This most notably occurs with Janis and Maya.
* On ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' a patient Dr. Kelso is treating finds information about him and her medical condition via her smart phone, faster -and more accurately- than he was telling her. Being somewhat behind the times, he had no idea how she was doing it until Dr. Cox mentioned it as something patients have started doing.
* It's a running gag on SiliconValley that the guys Google new associates, and autocomplete tells us about their character before they even do the search. When they Google Russ Hanneman, for example, the top autocomplete suggestions are "douchebag", "sexual harassment lawsuit", "billionaire" and "misogynist".