There's been an interesting thread in the blogosphere about Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of AOL.  He googled himself and found that he didn't control ANY of the top results that came back.  Since he wanted to control the information that was disseminated about him on the Internet, he set about to create a blog and make sure it was ranked #1 when he googled his name.  He was successful.

This brings up an interesting idea:  googling yourself isn't necessarily about ego gratification anymore, it's also about controlling your personal PR.  If you don't control the first result that comes back when somebody searches for you, you're not in conrol of the information they see--somebody else is.  Talk about identity theft.  If there's anything on the Internet that you want to control, it's what people see when they look you up.  It could affect future jobs, business opportunities, even personal relationships.

Google yourself, and make sure you're comfortable with the results.  If you're not, you may want to adopt Ted Lenonsis' strategy.  After all, Google is probably the first stop for people who don't know you but want to know more.

By the way, I am really happy to see this idea being looked at and talked about.  It's the first glimmer of what's going to become a hugely significant issue over time, that of online identity.  Because if you think about it, this is EXACTLY what this debate is about.  It's about somebody wanting to control the extension of theirself that's publicly available out on the Internet.  To put it in a context that more people might be familiar with, what Ted was doing is the equivalent of seeing that somebody else had already put up a MySpace page or LinkedIn account for him and not being ok with that but wanting to set one up himself, that he controls.  Fantastic.

Part of the 60 Ideas in 60 Days series.  Click here for the rest of the ideas.