Google unveils new tool 'Me on the Web' to manage users' online reputation

Technology giant Google has launched a new tool that helps you manage search results for your name.

Me on the Web, is now included on the Google dashboard in between account information and analytics. It is not intended to be another privacy setting, Google said on its official blog.

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, the results that appear are a combination of information you've posted and information published by others, Google Product Manager Andreas Tuerk wrote on the blog post.

This tool, Me on the Web, appears as a section of the Google Dashboard right beneath the Account details. Me on the Web also provides links to resources offering information on how to control what third-party information is posted about you on the web. These include common tips like reaching out to the webmaster of a site to ask for the content to be taken down, or publishing additional information on your own to help make less relevant websites appear farther down in search results, Turek further wrote on the post.

Savvy web users may already have used Google Alerts to set up notifications for mentions of their name or email address in websites and news stories. If you haven't set up alerts yet, Me on the Web makes it even easier to do so and even automatically suggests some search terms you may want to monitor, Turek concluded on the Google post.