By: Zoë Miller

It can be tempting to get the down-low on a potential match by scoping out their online persona, but meeting someone in person can often tell you worlds more about someone than their digital trail.

To find out the pros and cons of looking up your date online, INSIDER spoke to dating and relationship expert Sameera Sullivan and best-selling author and relationship expert Susan Winter.

Here’s what you need to know before you do an online sweep for information about your date.

With a quick search, you could also learn some handy basic information about the person you’re meeting

Knowing basic information about someone, such as what field they work in, could be useful on a first date when you’re trying to make conversation.

“I think it’s good to do a preliminary

[search],” Winter said. But you might want to keep your search pretty simple — Winter said she recommends you wait until after the first date to do a “deep dive” search about someone on the internet. This way, your first impression of your date is less likely to be greatly impacted by what you find.

But as one expert told INSIDER, if you do an online sweep before your date, you might want to just be candid about it

If you accidentally (or purposefully) reveal that you’ve gleaned too much about the person you’ve met for dinner or drinks, don’t worry. Online researching your date is a pretty common practice and you shouldn’t be embarrassed that you’ve done it, though it’s worth noting that every person may not take this revelation well.

“I would tell people not to feel ashamed if they’ve [Googled their date] because it’s fairly common. And it becomes a more common practice once you actually like a person after the first date. Because naturally, you want to protect yourself. You want to fact-check,” Winter told INSIDER.

Continue reading: https://www.insider.com/should-i-google-my-date-2019-7