Searching for a reputation: Your online presence is worth monitoring

With patients and potential business partners willing to plug your name into a search engine, it's a good idea for you to do the same to see what the online world says about you. But plugging your patients' names into a search engine is a dicier proposition.

By Bob Cook, AMNews staff. April 23/30, 2007.

The unanticipated magic of the Internet search engine is that it surreptitiously allows you to find out what's being said about you behind your back.

With so much information accessible just by entering your name, the name of someone you know, the name of a business associate or even the name of a patient into a search engine, any pretense of manners or decorum has long been chucked out the window when it comes to digging for dirt, or lack thereof. In fact, far from being seen as rude, self-searching in particular is considered a wise business strategy, a way to make sure you know what face you are portraying to your patients -- and your potential patients.

"From a reputation standpoint, the search engines are becoming a reference point," said Nolan Bayliss, co-founder of Chicago-based Naymz, which sets up online profiles for individuals and businesses, including physician clients.

Using search engines for this purpose has become so widespread that two leading dictionaries last year added "googling," for the eponymous Google company.

But whether it is googling, or Yahooing, or Alta Vistaing, the ability to find so much information so easily is raising questions for physicians about how much searching is too much -- particularly in digging up background on patients.

Typing your own name into a search engine used to be considered a form of ego tripping. That is, until it became apparent how much people relied on googling to learn about other people.