As Briony and I share a name, I thought I'd let her tell her side of the story when it comes to sieving oneself from the internets:
I've actually developed something of a phobia, in recent times, of Googling my own name. Ever 
since I got fired for writing ill remarks about a former colleague on a tiny music forum, which he managed to locate due to the fact he Googled his name (oh, how implausible it was I thought he'd ever discover my words of malice!), I have this fear that as soon as I type in my name and hit return, an entry will pop up onto my screen, offering content such as "Briony Edwards looks like shit ALL THE TIME", "Briony Edwards is an absolute dickhead", and so on. However, committed and determined journalist that I am (err... yeah), I faced my fear and, thankfully, the offerings were insult free.
The front page sees a couple of my recent Dolly Mix posts, which is nice, as before now, Google hasn't deemed any of my output as search-result worthy material (fair call, Google). Now I OWN that front page. Beyond that, there's links to a couple of very ordinary and pleasant seeming women on Facebook. Obviously I clicked onto these women to see how I fare amongst the other Briony Edwards' of this world (wow, I wonder how many times I am going to fit "Briony Edwards" into this post). In my investigations, I discovered that not only does one of them share just a name with me, but also a birthday. What are the chances! In a flush of irrationality, my first thoughts were that she was trying to steal my identity.....
Now, I know when you look at it with the objective eyes of an outsider, this may seem a rash conclusion to jump to. Don't get me wrong, I can't really see why anyone would deem my identity a particularly sensible one to inherit, given my status as financially deplete at all times. However, such was my disbelief at this coincidence being real, I sent my poor namesake a barrage of messages requesting confirmation that she WASN'T actually trying to take over my life, one social networking site at a time. Unsurprisingly, she didn't reply.
Once I'd returned to a more normal (and less caffeine infected) mental state, I carried on with my search, and... shock horror! First entry on the second page - there it is - my Guardian Soulmates dating profile. I am slightly mortified that the simple act of googling my name will mean you're privy to the information that I'm a sad loser who can't get a date. As you may be able to tell, I still haven't been able to shake the vague feeling of shame and social ineptitude towards the fact I have an online dating profile - especially when I still like to believe that at 22 I really shouldn't be having to advertise myself to the masses in order to secure myself a date. Unfortunately, reality dictates otherwise, and apparently I'm not really that embarrassed about it, or I guess I wouldn't be writing about it on here.
Aside from that faux-pas, name sake wise there seems to be a lot about a rugby player from Bath, which is fine, as I think anyone who knows me will be able to gauge how likely it is I would be involved in any sort of activity which requires a commitment to running around a lot. There's also a solicitor, and a chartered physiotherapist who works at Guy's Hospital. Congratulations to you guys on getting proper jobs and, in turn, a higher-brow Google presence than my own.
My absolute favourite of all the BEs I came across though, is 13 year old sdrawdE ynoirB, who says this about herself on her BEBO profile: "my name is briony edwards. i go to treorchy comp. im thirteen years old, fourteen on the 29th ov march :D i love going out on the weekends with my girls :D". At the age of thirteen I basically spent all my spare time on internet chatrooms, so this leaves me with the burning question... Where do they go?