What will someone find when they Google you? Is it what you would like them to see? Nows the time to find out. Take the next 5 minutes to run a Google search (or Yahoo!, Bing, or your search provider of choice) and see what turns up.

Set up a Google alert (Google.com/alerts) on your name. Once you set up an alert, you'll receive an e-mail any time your name is mentioned anywhere on the web, including social networks, video sites, news, outlets, blogs, and more. Be sure to set up alerts for variations of the spelling of your name and include your middle name or initial as well. This is very important in today's internet / social media environment. If you see something incorrect or offensive, you can deal with it immediately.

Now that youve seen whats out there, is it what you want representing you? Respond to the following questions below:

Did your name pull up one or many other people who share your name?

Did your name search pull up some sites/images that youd rather not have others see?

Your name search identify information that you would like to see about you?

Were you surprised by the amount of data that appeared about you on the internet? Why?