Guarding your good name on online
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Take Google. The widely used search engine prioritizes search results by popularity, as reflected by the number of clicks the results draw. The general rule is that Websites hosting the most negative profiles about somebody get the most clicks, and hence, rank higher in search engine findings.
It's natural that many Google users running searches about someone they don't know tend to believe the information gleaned from these Websites, even though it might be dubious, if not utterly slanderous and biased.
As the authors argue, "Dangerous information is often like an iceberg: What you see at the top of a Google search is often the tip of what is available online."
In the information age, it may take decades to build a good reputation, but only a moment's faux pas to ruin it. That's why veteran Netizens caution Internet rookies -- as some once cautioned me -- against postings that might elicit unwanted scrutiny by the country's fearsome Internet vigilantes.
On how to protect and restore reputation, Fertik and Thompson have few innovative ideas. All they suggest is that image-conscious people frequently conduct "online reputation audits" to gauge their reputations and examine what it is about them that gets slammed most often. Then take the initiative to cast themselves in a positive light through proactive self-profiling on popular social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.
This sounds like wishful thinking. As the authors concede, "Anything that is said online may be available forever, no matter how hard anyone tries to delete it." I wonder whether a sensible person would bother to take action if the damage to his or her reputation doesn't warrant the clean-up effort. Sometimes the best way to confront smears is not fight back, but take th?em as an odd form of compliments.
After I did a Google search on how many enemies I've made due to my critique of writer and racing car driver Han Han ("Han Han is hardly a hero of our times", Shanghai Daily, April 9), it turned out that I was spared the worst of name-calling by Han's staunch supporters. I was merely labeled "a clown," "a government hack" and "a miserable wannabe." I had expected more colorful insults.
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