Seth Godin posted recently about the effect that the internet can have on your job search. He explained:

A friend advertised on Craigslist for a housekeeper.

Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person’s name.

The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, “binge drinking.”

The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, “I am applying for some menial jobs that are below me, and I’m annoyed by it. I’ll certainly quit the minute I sell a few paintings.”

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I trust that most of you are not posting pictures of yourself drunk or in other compromising situations. That, however, does not mean that you should be complacent about your online presence. You should Google yourself regularly (also known as ego surfing) if for no other reason than that other people will be Googling you. You should know what information other people are finding out about you when they search for you on the internet.

If you are really concerned, you can visit Google Alerts and set up one of more searches of your name, your business, your kids, or whatever else you want to monitor to keep tabs on what information is available on the internet.