Basically, this service is designed to bring reputation management to your Google Dashboard and help you keep track of mentions of your name as well as data leaks related to your personal information. It does this by having you fill out your Google Profile and then suggesting terms for you to set up alerts on, that way you will be notified when someone mentions your name, your email or your phone number on the Web.

Unfortunately, while the tool certainly sounds like a good idea, it falls far short of providing a much-needed service. Any savvy Google user has long had access to all the tools in “Me on the Web” (MOTW) and Google’s own solutions for what to do when you find leaked data are, in a word, useless.

To see why MOTW is such a disappointment, one has to look a bit deeper at the tool and the slew of things it can not do.

What Me on the Web Does

Google’s MOTW has three basic parts:

1. Links from Your Profile: This is a list of sites that you’ve put in your Google profile and instructed Google are about you. These are all links under your control.
2. Alerts For Your Data: Google makes it easy to set up search alerts for your data and recommends terms that you should consider, such as your name and email address. As with regular Google Alerts, these alerts will be emailed to you at the intervals you requested.
3. Help Pages: Finally, MOTW offers links to various help pages on how to control your information online, including a page on removing unwanted content from Google.

All in all, there certainly isn’t anything “new” here but it is convenient to have it in a single place and Google making suggestions on what to monitor may be a good way to reach out and help less-savvy users who might not know what Google Alerts are and how they can be used for this.

Unfortunately, convenience factor aside, there just isn’t much reason to be excited about MOTW and many reasons to be disappointed.

Where Me on the Web Falls

The first problem with MOTW is that it is connected with your Google Profile. Unfortunately, Google profiles are not available to Google Apps users, such as myself, forcing me to use a backup Google account to even test the service out.

In short, if you use Google Apps, you can’t use MOTW or Google Profile at all.

But once you get access to it, it quickly becomes clear that MOTW’s best feature, it’s alerts, is just another skin on Google Alerts, a tool that has been around for many years and is already widely used for this purpose.

This also means that the alerts are going to come with the same limitations, namely that people with common names won’t have much use for it and it won’t help finding any leaks already out there, just new ones that come up.

Second, the links to your own sites is a fairly pointless feature. Considering that you provide those links to Google, it merely repeats what you already know.

Finally, and most importantly, it’s guides for removing unwanted content from Google are effectively useless. Though the guide instructs users on how to remove such leaked content using their URL removal tool, it only works on sites that are under the user’s control.

For site’s outside of Google’s control, Google simply instructs the user to contact the webmaster involved, which is a fine strategy unless the leak was malicious. In cases where personal data is leaked to the public, Google won’t be of any help unless the other webmaster agrees to remove it first.

All in all, there’s nothing new in MOTW and no real reason to use it, considering all the tools it points to have been around for a long time and are very well-known.

Bottom Line

When I read about MOTW, I was optimistic that it might be useful not just for tracking private and personal information, but also for tracking mentions of a creator and, possibly their content as well. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

But even with that, perhaps unrealistic, disappointment aside, MOTW simply doesn’t add anything new to the arsenal and actually verifies how uncooperative Google can be with certain types of leaks. Granted, the laws don’t require Google to take any action nor does it provide an easy mechanism, like the DMCA, for them to do so, but it’s also clear Google hasn’t invested much into solving this problem either and its big gesture is just curent features in new wrapping.

In the end, MOTW is just a well-rounded disappointment, not terribly useful for anything, let alone its intended goal.

If you are launching a new site, especially a new blog, there are several things that you can do to make sure that your copyright is as protected as possible.

Simply put, when you are starting from scratch, you have a rare opportunity to get things right from the start and many of the best tools to protect your work function at their best when you use them from day one.

So, if you’re preparing to launch a new site, whether it is a static one or a blog, here are the steps you need to take today to protect your work or, if you’re not interested in enforcement, track it and encourage its sharing.

1. Register with the U.S.Copyright Office

Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is both slow and expensive. It’s also hopelessly out of date with the current Web and can take some nine months get your certificate.

Still, the fact remains that, if you want execute your full rights in the U.S., you need that registration. You need it both to file suit in a Federal Court and you need to have either registered before the infringement or within three months of publication to be able to collect statutory damages.

If you think you might ever want to sue for copyright infringement, you will want to register your work promptly. It’s a pain and it costs $35 but it can be invaluable down the road.

Likewise, as you add content to your site, you will likely want to re-register every 3 months to ensure that the registration is up to date and all content is protected.

2. Register with FairShare or Use Google Alerts

If you have a site where most of the content will be in an RSS feed, set up an account with FairShare so it can begin tracking the content in your feed from the first post. The service is free and only requires you to subscribe to the provided RSS feed where it will list where matches of your work were discovered along with some basic information.

If your content is largely static, you can use Google Alerts. I’ve covered Google Alerts before, but basically you just find good, unique phrases within your content and have Google search for those phrases and email you with any results it finds.

3. Set up an RSS Footer

If your site will put a large part of its content into an RSS feed, add a footer to the feed. You can use a simple WordPress plugin to do that if you’re a self-hosted WordPress user or, Blogger users can simply use the option in their admin panel.

Ideally, it should include a copyright statement, a link back to your site and, possibly, a digital fingerprint to make the tracking of your content even easier.

Since RSS scraping is one of the biggest problems content creators face, this can make sure that such use is at least attributed and trackable, even if it won’t put a stop to it.

4. Set up Your Site’s Footer

Though you don’t technically need to include any copyright information for your work to be protected, it is a very good idea to do so as many have the misconception that, if it is not marked, it is free to use.

Make sure your footer includes all the basic copyright information including the year, which you can configure to update automatically, the copyright symbol, your name and the license information for the work (All Rights Reserved, Creative Commons, etc.)

5. Add Contact Information for Permissions

Finally, as you’re setting up how people will contact you, make sure to have a means for people to contact you to ask permission to use your work.

This is a good idea even if you use some form of blanket licensing, such as Creative Commons, as people will still contact you about these issues. This happens both because they don’t understand or see the license and because they want to use the work in a way that goes beyond it.

If you offer a clear path to contact you about these issues, even if it is just through your regular contact page, you’ll find people to be much more likely to ask permission than they would otherwise.

Bottom Line

When starting a new site, whether your first or your hundredth, it is a chance to get things right and avoid mistakes that you made with the other efforts. Copyright is no different in that regard.

If you value your content, its worth taking some time before launching to make some adjustments and make sure that your work is protected. Doing so will not only help you enforce your copyright, but also track where it appears on the Web, legitimately and unlawfully, letting you better understand your audience and reach.

So take the opportunity and spend a few minutes making sure your work is adequately protected.

If you’re a blogger (or any other kind of Webmaster) your content is being copied, it is virtually a guarantee. Whether you are big or small, users and commentators, along with spammers and scrapers, are using your work. Some of this use is likely legitimate, even desired, but some of it also likely goes beyond what’s allowed and into copyright infringement.

Still, not everyone has an interest in enforcing their copyright. Whether they don’t feel passionately about the issue or don’t see it as worthwhile, they feel that the (limited) time spent dealing with plagiarists and other infringers isn’t well spent.

But no matter how you feel about copyright enforcement, you still have a strong interest in both tracking and understanding how your content is used and also heading off unwanted uses of your work.

So taking a few minutes to think about your content and how you can protect/track it makes sense as it might reduce the amount of misuse you see, without you doing anything to stop infringements, and let you find readers you didn’t know you had.

1. Add/Update a Copyright Notice in Your Footer

If you don’t have a copyright notice on your blog, you need to add one and make sure it is up to date. Though you don’t need a notice to have your work be copyright-protected, many people don’t understand that and will think all work without the © symbol is free for the taking.

There’s a very simple trick for WordPress users to make sure that the date is automatically updated, making it the last time you ever have to change your copyright notice.

2. License Your Content

Next, explain the terms under which others can use your content. Are you reserving all rights? Say so clearly and post a notice indicating as such (All Rights Reserved). This can be a part of your above copyright notice.

If you want to allow certain uses of your work, add a Creative Commons or other appropriate license. Do not try to create your own license.

Expressing the terms of use clearly is important as it prevents misunderstandings but it should not be the sole focus of your site. Make it clear for anyone who is looking for the information but don’t down beat readers over the head with it.

3. Sign Up for FairShare

Fairshare, powered by content-matching service Attributor, is hands-down the best free tool for finding matches of your blog content.

It’s fast to sign up for and easy to use. Just provide FairShare with your RSS feed and subscribe to the one it generates to receive updates on matches to your content it finds. Whether you are just interested in tracking where your content is used or are actively enforcing it, it is an invaluable tool.

4. Use Google Alerts for Static Content

You likely have static content on your site that isn’t in your RSS feed and, thus, isn’t protected by FairShare. Visit Google Alerts and create alerts for each page using unique phrases in quotes. Then, you’ll receive RSS or Email alerts when the content appears elsewhere on the Web.

As an alternative, you can use Plagium with its free weekly reports.

5. Add an RSS Footer

There are literally dozens of plugins for nearly every major platform that can do this, but it’s important to add a footer to your RSS feed. Since that is the most common way your site will be scraped and republished, you should add something to it that ideally links back to your site and/or adds some kind of copyright notice (perhaps one similar to the footer of your site).

You can also use a digital fingerprint, string of letters and numbers that should be unique to your site, and create a Google Alert for it to track where your RSS feed appears on the searchable Web.

Bottom Line

Though I’ve already harped on the benefits of content tracking as a statistics metric, there is much more that Webmasters can do to protect their content, all without filing a single cease and desist letter or takedown notice.

Since all of these steps can be taken in under an hour’s time, it makes sense to take a moment, make sure that your site is up to code, your content is tracked and your feed is protected. Though you can’t stop everyone from misusing your content, no matter how much enforcement you do, there are simple steps that can reduce infringements and help you reach out to new audiences at the same time.

Clearly, this is time well spent even if ongoing enforcement isn’t.

Disclosure:I have consulted for Attributor in the past and my current company, CopyByte.com, uses their paid products.

Google Alerts, which is a service that sends out notices when content carrying the alert search term appears on the Web, currently only sends out its alerts via email. It is commonly used for vanity searches, for keeping on top of who mentions a person or site, and for keeping track of content, either through searches for statistically improbable phrases or digital fingerprints.

What this means to you will probably depend on how heavily you use RSS and how much use you make of Google Alerts. If you are not currently using Google Alerts and want to get started, I’ve created a screencast to help you understand the basics.

Obviously, I’ll have more to say on this once the new feature is made public.

However, at this time, I don’t see myself making heavy use of the RSS feature. I literally have years of experience meshing Google Alerts with email filters and creating a workflow around it. Though such a system could be moved to RSS easily, I don’t see how much is gained in my case.

Clearly though, this feature is not for people like myself and other current heavy users of Google Alerts, instead, it is for those who don’t because they can’t get the alerts in the format they want. This will change that and let them receive their alerts in a variety of places including their RSS reader, their Google home page and through a variety of mashup services.

Needless to say, this opens up a lot of new doors for Google Alerts but, personally, I’m just happy to hear that the service is still receiving some attention. After being so long without a significant upgrade, it is nice to see that Google is still working on their Google Alerts product.

The screencast goes over all of the basics including choosing a term to search for, creating the alert, what you receive in the alert emails and how to manage the alerts that you’ve created. It also gives something of a sneak peek behind my Google Alerts strategy showing you the number of alerts I’ve created and the amount of potential plagiarism that I receive regarding my work.

It also showcases some of my bad habits including not appropriately tagging my emails or filing them away. Something I need to be better about.

Still, the screencast makes a point about the effectiveness and usefulness of Google Alerts for tracking your work as it is copied across the Web. It has also been my most-requested screencast.

So, if you can forgive a few rough edges, you will find the video embedded below and it runs about eight minutes. I look forward to your thoughts and feedback on it. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

What I’ve done is recorded and uploaded a modified version of a presentation that I gave to the Virtual Assistant Revolution group in September that goes over the basics of preventing, detecting and stopping plagiarism on the Web.

It is a lengthy presentation, this version clocks in at about an hour and twenty minutes, but it provides at least a decent overview of the issues at hand. It doesn’t go into much detail into any one issue, but offers fairly broad coverage of the needed topics.

The video is embedded in this post below the fold and is available directly from Revver. If you wish to embed it into your site or blog, please feel free to do so.

Also, I am taking requests for future videos. From here on out I plan to create much shorter videos, under ten minutes in length, that demonstrate demonstrating various aspects of fighting plagiarism. I am taking suggestions or requests for these upcoming clips.

Finally, my thanks goes out to the Virtual Assistant Revolution forum. They were a great group and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to them. They were also very generous in allowing me to use this presentation in this manner.

I hope you enjoy the presentation and find it useful.