Type your name into Google and see what pages pop out. Most of us have done this at least once.
With more people and information appearing on the Web every day, a new industry of companies has appeared to help those who don’t like what they see in those search engine returns.
Known as “online reputation management” or “Googlewashing,” companies such as ReputationDefender.com, ReputationHawk.com and DefendMyName.com will, for a fee, help customers remove, hide or suppress embarrassing or inflammatory pages that appear online.
It’s an industry that’s booming, said Peter Kim, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc., an independent technology and market research company.
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“The influence of content is growing, so people want to find out what’s on there, and they want to control and manage that.”
Robert Russo, president and chief executive officer of DefendMyName, said his company charges individuals anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000 to manage their presence online. DefendMyName uses a mix of math and moxie to make sure pages someone doesn’t like appear much lower in search results. These companies also have been known to pressure Web sites to remove information from their pages.
“It’s literally controlling the online branding around a person’s name or a corporate name,” he said. “We created this program to provide a technological alternative to being able to try to litigate against companies to remove this.”
Russo thinks this year — this election year — will bring more business than usual, which is why he has registered two new sites recently: PoliticianDefender.com and ProtectMyElection.com.