THE INTERNET NEVER FORGIVES NOR FORGETs

Regretting those controversial tweets you made or perhaps those pictures you posted online when you were younger ?

The web may be a good for a lot of things, but a big negative aspect of this online world is that it is a permanent repository of the skeletons from our past; some of which never go away.

People innocently post images, make blog entries, update Facebook statuses and tweet; all led by a false sense of privacy on the internet. But unfortunately, as soon as you post something, it gets replicated by algorithms and search engines, and is spread like a virus on the World Wide Web.

Thankfully, now there are websites and services that promise to clean up your online reputation !!!

WHAT IS ONLINE REPUTATION

Your online reputation is made up of what you say and what you do on the internet. And this is what people usually find when they google you for more information.

The web is changing so quickly and with new social networking services sprouting up almost every month, it has become impossible for people to understand what they have shared online in the past, and if it can affect them negatively later. In most instances, it will come back to haunt you !

Most people think that staying off social networks might help avoid the negative effects on online reputation.

Most of the harm doesn't come from things you have done yourself, someone could have taken pictures of you and posted them online, and tagged you - and now they are there forever.

HOW TO GROOM YOUR IMAGE ONLINE ?

The "sticky" factor of the internet is therefore something that most people should be concerned about. Once something is online, it's almost impossible to get rid of completely. Because, even if you delete the original content, search engines such as Google and Bing most likely have already archived the original content. So tweaking your online reputation usually boils down to tricking these engines.

A lot of tech-savy people with an understanding of how the internet works can try doing it themselves by populating the web with flattering content and optimizing that information for search engines.

The simplest way to optimize your online reputations is to stress on the search keywords, populate blogs and pages by using names as often as possible. This way, when someone searches you, these pages climb on top of the results.

Another good idea is to set up your own website or blog, and signing up for popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

The more flattering the content you upload, the greater the chances of the search engine picking up the good stuff.

Celebrities, politicians and corporate organizations easily end up paying between $5000 and $10,000 on the site.

For clients willing to put in some effort, reputation.com also has a basic, free service called uProtect.It. This service encrypts wall messages, status messages and photos so that only a few selected friends can view them, no matter where you post them.

The working is simple, and what makes the service tick is the fact that they don't allow your personal content to be stored on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Instead, they store this information on their databases and just share the links on various sites.

Users love this service because they can also control the "digital half-life" of the posts, assigning an expiration date either immediately or after a set date.

But free service or not, netizens must make a concerted efforts towards maintaining their oniline image these days; perhaps show a little more discretion in what they post, and the privacy settings they use.

SPECIALIZED TOOLs TO SANITIZE YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE

General tools are good, but if you are looking to monitor specific online networks such as Twitter on your blog, then here are a few apps that could be of use :

> Sites such as www.monitter.com and www.tweetbeep.com let you keep an eye on your reputation in the Twitter-verse. TweetBeep, for example, keeps track of who's is tweeting about you as well as your website or blog; even if they use a shortened URL like bit.ly or tinyurl.com.

> For users trying to monitor their blog presence, sites such as www.backtype.com and blogpulse.com can be good starting points. These are basically blog search engines, but come with many complementary tools that help you analyze the data you collect, to help monitor a particular person.

> Sites such as www.purewiretrust.org, on the other hand, help you build your reputation in the online world. Alternatively, it can also be used to get more information about the reputation of people you interact with. So, say, someone you vaguely know makes a Facebook friend request, you can quickly click through this site to find out how others have rated the Facebook requester to find out his/her online reputation.

And finally if you prefer generalized reputation management tools, then sites such as www.brandseye.com, visible.me, www.trackur.com are the resources for you. All of these provide you with an in-depth analysis of your online worth; this besides solutions on how to improve your internet profile.



Kavita Kukday-Deb
TECHTONIC