Google, destroyer of worlds

First Google made it easier--but also much, much harder--to be original. Then Google wrecked people's feelings of uniqueness. Now Google is destroying dating normalcy.

The results can be enlightening, surprising - and sometimes, a little disturbing. So Laird's advice also comes with a warning: "Don't google what you can't handle."

Hers is the voice of experience. In her dating life, she regularly did online research on her dates and turned up, among other things, "bizarre" fetishes and a guy who was fascinated with vampires.

"Not my scene at all," Laird says, "and nothing I would've ever guessed over an initial meeting and beer."

No more fruitfully awkward moments, those train wreck date stories that you share with your friends and harbor in your nightmares for decades. Thanks, and no thanks, to Google.