Searching for your own name is often considered an exercise in vanity, but knowing what’s being said about you and how content related to your identity appears in a search result is an important part of managing your online reputation. A negative search result can possibly affect you in unimaginable ways and having the tools at your disposal to remove misleading results ultimately benefits you in the long term.

Yesterday Google launched a tool called Me on the Web (found in your Google Dashboard) to help you monitor your online identity. This new service from Google allows you to track mentions of your name and associated email addresses.  Me on the Web also offers tips for managing your online identity and for removing unwanted content related to searches of your name and email addresses.

Tracking your name is pretty simple: First, set up the email addresses you would like to track. Then, add new email addresses and choose whether you would like to receive alerts as-they-appear, once-a-day or once-a-week. You can also view current search results for your alert parameters before you set them.

I’ve heard the nightmare stories of misleading search results and their repercussions. I can imagine those folks wish they had a tool like this at their disposal!

Take a minute and set this up for yourself. It’s more than a good idea.