Do you know what happens when Google uses your name in its Docs templates?
For the last two years, Casey Baumer has been dealing with confused and angry messages. Thanks to Google, who included her name on all its Docs templates to make it easy for users to create resumes, school essays, brochures, and newsletters. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a nightmare for Baumer.
The name “Casey Baumer” was used by Google as the randomly generated dummy name across all of its templates in the app as an example so that people could see how the document would be formatted; the idea is to replace her name, (obviously) fake address and other details with your own when you create your own documents.
It all started almost two years ago when Baumer got her first message about Google Docs.
A friend called and asked her, “‘Uhh, did you know your name is the Google Docs name?’ And I had no idea what she was talking about,” the 20-something food stylist tells Business Insider.
However, it did not take her much to find it out.
According to a Google spokesperson, in the spirit of creativity, the company decided to use “Casey Baumer” instead of like John Smith or Jane. However, the decision ironically backfired, as the real Casey Baumer started receiving dozens of irate or confused messages.
After that initial phone call, Baumer started hearing more and more about her “alter ego” from friends and acquaintances.
Occasionally, it was kind of funny, so she tried to overlook it or would respond by explaining the situation. However, about a year ago, things really went out of hand when she discovered a landmine of messages in her “Other” inbox on Facebook from people demanding to know how she hacked into their accounts to create documents or secretly communicating with their significant others.
“If you actually look at the documents, instead of just reading the name, it’s clear that none of it’s real,” Baumer says. Google user a filler text, called “lorem ipsum,” for the bulk of the documents, so it’s just gibberish. “But people clearly don’t really read it!”
The continuous bombardment of messages became annoying and eerie. Someone even started writing a fictional story about her.
She doubted whether Google had actually Googled the name before it used hers and wished it had.
While some of the messages made Baumer laugh, the cases where people appeared to be extremely mad made her scratchy. Baumer said she is now tired of explaining the mix-up and posted a couple of status updates on Facebook to try and get Google’s attention.
Luckily, her most recent status caught the attention of the company. A spokesperson said the company’s in the process of updating its template names.
That comes as huge relief for Baumer.
Source: Independent
