Ego surfing is a slang term for looking yourself up on a search engine (usually Google these days, but the term goes back much farther than Google’s dominance of the search market). It used to be looked at as something you would do to stroke your ego, to see what that you have said has made its way into the web for the world to see how great you are. In short, it was viewed as narcissistic.

It has been the case, though, in recent years that prospective employers, current employers, and others who may want to do business with you or determine whether or not to trust you will use the search engines out there to determine whether or not their trust in you is a good investment. This, combined with the fact that others may talk about you, photograph you, and otherwise plaster you all over the Internet, makes ego surfing no longer such a narcissistic idea. You need to be able to take control of your image. The only way to find out what your image is, of course, is to look.

That said, I will post another entry shortly which will rebut an article where my name has come up. Until then, check your image, and make sure the Internet doesn’t cast you in a bad light.