You need to establish a Google Profile to take advantage of Me on the Web. Your Google Profile contains basic information about who you are and what you do.
When we join social networks, comment on blogs, and participate in any kind of online dialog, we build our online identities. What you Tweet, post on Facebook, put on your LinkedIn profile, and write on your blog all come together to paint a picture of who you are.
What other people post about you also becomes part of your online identity. Google’s Me on the Web tool helps you manage what users see when they search for you on the Internet.
You need to establish a Google Profile to take advantage of Me on the Web. Your Google Profile contains basic information about who you are and what you do. You can also add links to your profiles on social networks, add links to your blog or other content that you want associated with your name in Web searches, and control what information in your profile can be seen by the public.
Me on the Web is a logical extension of your Google Profile. It allows you to manage your online reputation in two ways. You can set up alerts to tell you when information about you is published to the Web, and you can request the removal of unwanted content and associated search results. If someone shares your home address on a public website without your permission, Me on the Web will send you an alert message.
You can contact Google to have the unwanted content removed from Google’s search results. If you do not have control over the site where the information is published, you can contact the site’s webmaster, and request to have the content removed from the site.
Your reputation on the internet becomes more and more important as people become more dependent on the internet. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on how you are represented online. When you apply for a job, the hiring manager may search for you online. What they find out could be the difference between you getting an interview and getting passed over.
Your current manager may periodically search for you online, and if they find something unsavoury, or if they find out that you have been sharing sensitive job-related information, you can lose your job on the spot. A tool like Me on the Web can help protect you from situations like this.
When you configure Me on the Web alerts to send you alerts as-it-happens you will know when information about you is published. These instant alerts will allow you to find the content and take action to remove it, secure it, or contact the site owner for help removing it. Now you will have a fighting chance of removing unsavoury information from search results before it falls into the wrong hands.
