background checks

The pre-date ritual is pretty standard: Showering, primping, Googling.

Googling?

Well, it's a pre-date "must" for at least 43 percent of Americans, this article notes.

(The piece also attempts to call the process "doogling." You know, "date" and "Googling." Something tells me that word won't catch on.)

In this day and age, I think it weird not to Google a date before things get serious. And why not? It's basically a free background check.

However, during a first date, I'd never disclose anything I learned about a guy via Google. Post-college, I once went out with a someone who Googled all the columns I'd written for my college newspaper -- and then used them as conversation starters.

It's one thing to do that when you've been dating each other for a couple months...publicly admitting to that kind of research on a first date is just plain creepy.

Thoughts?