Google Launches “Me On The Web” Online Reputation-Management Tool

 From the eBrandz Website:

http://news.ebrandz.com/google/2011/4108--google-launches-me-on-the-web-online-reputation-management-tool-.html

MONDAY, 20 JUNE 2011 13:12

Written By:  JITESH PILLAI 

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San Francisco -- With the astronomical boom in social media networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, managing your reputation online just got easier with Google's newly released tool, dubbed as “Me on the Web,” to help users manage their online identities.

 

The feature called Me on the Web is a reputation management tool accessible online now. The tool can be found on the Google Dashboard, below the Account details and offers to “help make it easier to monitor your identity on the web,” said Google.

The feature is pretty simple and can be activated for alerts through a user's Google dashboard for mentions of their e-mail addresses or other search terms they associate with their online identity such as a business or product. Alerts can be sent weekly, daily or as Google picks up the mentions.

“In recent years, it has become easier and easier to broadcast information about yourself online through powerful new platforms like social media-networking sites and photo-sharing services,” explained Andreas Tuerk, a product manager at Google.

He recognized that way to supervise your privacy on these sites is to decide who can see this information, determining whether it is visible to just a few friends, family members, or everyone on the web. But Google is taking a different approach. Me on the Web is not a privacy tool.

 According to Michael Fertik, CEO of Repuation.com, concluded that he was enormously excited to find more than 100 emails in his inbox Thursday about a new Google application aiming to help people take control of their online identity.

“The biggest thing Google could do is endorse the space, which is really cool,” said Fertik, whose company sells technology for managing online reputations.

The Me on the Web component of the dashboard also offers links to Google resources on how to get content removed from searches and tips on managing your online reputation (including a pitch to create a Google profile, which gets picked up high in search results for your name.)

According to Tuerk, another significant consideration when publishing information on the web is selecting how you are identified when you post that information. That is where Google is putting its efforts.

“We have worked hard to create various identity options into Google products. For instance, while you may want to identify yourself by name when you post an answer to a question in a forum so that readers know the response is reputable, if you upload videos about a controversial cause, you may prefer to post under a pseudonym,” Tuerk said.

He further explained that your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you -- whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag, or a reply to a public status update. When someone searches for your name on a search engine like Google, Tuerk said, the results that appear are a combination of information you have posted and information published by others.

However, alerts can be organized using Me on the Web that will notify you if your name or email address gets mentioned online. It will also suggest some search terms that you might want to consider monitoring. Besides alerts, the tool offers links to resources for information on what third party information is posted about you on the web and tips like how to request content to be taken down.

But with the masses flocking to the web for more and more interaction online on social medianetworks and the likes with often no clue about the ins and outs of what they are letting themselves in for, especially with the minefield that is online privacy.

While Google Alerts would not detect every single mention of the terms you arrange, it is a good initiative for people concerned about their online reputation, and Me on the Web is a bit more convenient than managing several Google Alerts.