How to Track Your Digital Footprint with iGoogle Widgets

One of many iGoogle widgets that will do custom searches

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With privacy concerns and online reputation concerns at the forefront of the Internet world, it's good to have a way to keep an eye on what is on the Internet about you.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Google account
iGoogle home page with search widgets

Step1

If you don't already have a Google account, go to Google and set one up (see link below).

Step2

To customize your own Google home page, go to the iGoogle page at google.com/ig (see link below). When you are logged in to your Google account, your customized home page will be at that URL.

Step3

Find the link on the upper right that says "Add Stuff." You will find hundreds of widgets that you can use to make your iGoogle home page customized just for you.

Step4

To check on your online reputation, your online information, or to see what information is available about you online, choose one of the customized search widgets.

The one illustrated at the opening of this article is a Blog Search widget. It will search through blogs for any mention of your name, your web site name, your URL, or any other search that you think would be relevant.

Step5

You can add more than one widget to your page. There are widgets for custom web searches, image searches, even very specialized searches such as eBay.

Step6

Each time you open your iGoogle home page, you can see the latest search results displayed in your search widgets. This way you can track the information available about you on the Internet.