Who Are You? And Why You Should Google Your Date

"You're not the person I thought you were", "I can't believe you think that!" or "I don't care if it was Spring break, it's all over the internet!"

Do any of these sound familiar? Well, hopefully not. And there are ways to keep them from ever coming up, here's how.

Research

Before investing in the stock market, would you not first review the company's history? Before buying that hot new ride, would you not first read all of the reviews? The same applies with dating. Treat every new relationship as an investment.

Every new relationship is a personal investment in time, finances, emotions and also reflects a judgment of your character. All of these elements should be reviewed for red flags saving you much unwanted headache down the road. It's much easier to pass in the beginning than to try to get out of a bad deal later and here are some tools to help with that decision:

Google yourself, go ahead. Ain't no shame in it.

Google is a great way to get background info. Not only will you see all of your potential dates activities but you will also be able to develop a sense of character and associations. Even if you do not belong to all of the networks that your date belongs to, most of the time the related post heading will show up in the Google search, giving you some type of heads up.

Look Ma' I'm on TV.

Have some embarrassing Spring Break videos floating around on YouTube? This is another perfect tool to see first hand the type of person you're trying to hook up with. If you find a video posted that makes you cringe, facepalm or that you would be embarrassed to show you parents, this may be bit of a stumbling block. At the time, the content in the video may have seemed funny or cool, but it's out in cyberspace forever and will eventually come up needing explaining to friends and family.

Tweet Tweet, a little birdie told me.

140 characters can say a lot about a person. Twitter is an extremely popular venting post. Tweeting reveals a persons mood, style and character. Do they post ever insignificant event through out their day, begging for attention? Are their tweets filled with positive and uplifting content or are they focused on depressive thoughts. With Twitter it's not so much important as to who they are friends with or who's following them due to the nature of the Twitter following process but more what they tweet about.

The Good Book

Ah, and here we have Facebook. "Destroying relationships since 2004". If you are having any type of relationship problems or insecurities, this clever network will magnify them 2000%. Just type in the person's name and you will suck up more dirt than a Hoover vacuum. You will be able to build a character profile with ease in no time seeing what the person likes, dislike and who they are friends with, giving you more information to decide if you want a relationship with this person.

Analyze the results

You now have all of this information bookmarked in your browser for review. What do you do now? Well, it's easier than you think.

First off, you do a "gut check", review all of the information and listen to your gut. If at any time you get than uneasy feeling and here the little voice in your head saying "WARNING WARNING", that may be grounds to pass on the deal and move on.

Second, do they have any questionable friendships or associations that should be discussed in the beginning that may lead to trouble down the road?

Third, are their likes and dislikes similar to yours? Do you see they spend all of their weekends hiking in the woods when that's the last place you would ever want to be?

And fourth, family and friends. When you enter into a relationship, not only is that person becoming your life but so is all of their friends, family and emotional baggage. Can you handle the overbearing parents, the attention grabbing best friend or even the pet dog that already assumed the alpha male position of the household?

What ever you final decision, be confident that you gave it some though and follow it with a positive heart. Relationships are not black and white, there is no right or wrong way, but only a way that works for you. There are people who got married after the first date and there are others who divorced after 25 years of marriage. You just never know how things will go or how people change. As long as you remain honest and open with your partner while giving it your best, you'll be heading in the right direct. Best of luck!