Increasingly, employment recruiters are screening out job applicants after Googling them.

Information hunters are finding oodles of self-incriminating stuff on just about every college student they research. Many applicants openly discuss their predilections for boozing, doing drugs, engaging in wild sex, and in scamming the authorities in various ways. Using their real names, these tell-all tattlers are screwing up their chances of getting hired at most firms.

It makes you wonder whether posting articles and publicity of various sorts will somehow bite the rest of us on the rear, sooner or later.

The other day, I posted a new article, adding to the hundreds already tracked by search engines, and instead of going with a jocular, self-critical biography, just to break the monotony, I thought better of it at the last minute.

"How long is the shelf-life of this biography?" I wondered. Then, I calculated that the half-life of nuclear waste is shorter, and I would be better off writing a straight-arrow description of myself.

Before the Internet, it was relatively easy to control the kind of information a client or a prospect had on you. If you put something into their hands, such as a trade reference, obviously, they could call it. And if your brochure spoke glowingly of your accomplishments, some of them were taken seriously.

But now, anybody can dig up the dirt on you if they wish, either by letting their fingers do the walking at search engines, or by paying commercial entities to do it for them.

It makes you wonder, if you're concerned at all about controlling your image, if not your privacy, if you want to make that task any easier.

In fact, a major premise of Internet marketing has been the idea of making it EASY for people to find you, to learn about you. But the more information they can access, the greater is the possibility that they'll unearth something disturbing, or at least off-putting.

With over 600 of my articles posted on the web, do you think you might find at least one that repulses you?

I guarantee it!

But I cannot control WHEN you'll discover it. It might pop-up first, after I have sent you my packet of materials and you're undertaking the task of Googling me

Of course, if you assert you're a major player in your field, and a prospect searches and finds zilch, that could be even more of a turn-off.

I just wonder how long it will take for public relations firms to start specializing in REMOVING web information, in the same way that they used to try keep the names of the rich and famous from appearing in "scandal sheets," a few decades ago.

Also, are there some smart college students out there that have made a decision that they don't want to appear in any search engine, that for all practical purposes, they wish to remain invisible?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a popular keynote speaker, seminar expert, and consultant to the Fortune 1000. He is one of the most prolific and widely read authors in sales, customer service, telemarketing, and consulting. One of his recent publications is the audio program published by Nightingale-Conant: "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," a favorite among salespeople and success seekers. President of Customersatisfaction.com & The Goodman Organization, he can be contacted about speaking and consulting opportunities at: [email protected].