There has been quite a bit of press about Online Reputation Management and how people are increasingly forming opinions based on what they find online.

The New York Post has a nice write up of ReputationDefender and the Online Reputation Management industry as a whole. Quoting from the piece:

“Whether you like it or not, your resume isn’t a piece of paper anymore. It’s your top 10 Google search results,” says Michael Fertik, CEO and founder of one such company, ReputationDefender.

[SNIP]

For fees ranging from 10 bucks for a credit-check-like comprehensive Web search to a $2,000 monthly charge for a full-frontal assault on demeaning content, reputation managers generally use two strategies: they either try to eliminate content altogether or conceal it in the bowels of a search engine’s results.

[Michael] Fertik’s firm will attempt to persuade owners of Web pages to remove humiliating posts or pictures for $30 per item. They use a process that tracks down Web hosts and contacts them in a “non-threatening” manner. The system works “nicely,” he says.

ReputationDefender was also recently highlighted on AOL:

Now you can employ the services, for a fee, of course, of businesses that will keep an eye on your online reputation and help you keep it clean. One of the pioneers in this field, ReputationDefender, goes on a search-and-destroy mission. This organization scours the Internet to dig up every bit of information on you and then sets out to destroy (at your request) any negative information by getting it corrected or removed, whenever possible.

Sautter and Crompton encourage people — whether they’re job searching or not — to remember that everything they do online leaves a digital footprint. It’s up to each individual to determine whether those footprints take a step in the right — or wrong — direction in cyberspace.

And finally, Boston.com recently ran a piece that looked at the potential pitfalls that doctors face online. The article points out that while there are many safeguards in place to protect patient data, many doctors are exposed on the web.

“There may be slanderous information about a physician on the Web, published in a blog or on a Web page, by a vengeful patient, colleague, or ex-lover,” Dr. Tristan Gorrindo and Dr. James E. Groves write in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Equally vexing, there may be slanderous information published about someone with the same name as an unlucky physician.”

Medical professionals as well as other executives are urged to be proactive in claiming their webutation and controlling what people find when they are searched.

ReputationDefender is the recognized market leader in Online Identity Management and offers a variety of services to give you an edge and defend your online reputation.

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