IF you’ve ever been shocked by search results for your name, Google has come up with a way to save face online.

The web search giant is giving people influence over what information turns up in searches on their names.

The company began this week featuring Google profiles, created voluntarily by users, at the bottoms of US “name-query” pages.

“It’s no secret that from time to time many of us have searched on Google for our name or someone else’s,” Google software engineer Brian Stoler said in a blog post.

“When searching for yourself to see what others would find, results can be varied and aren’t always what you want people to see. We want to make that better and give you more of a voice.”

However, the profiles don’t necessarily block bad results, which could still appear in general search results.

Profiles require users to provide personal information in order to appear on public search results.

Users can provide nicknames, work information, photos, links, and even list their “superpowers”.

Concise profiles are displayed along with results of searches on people’s names to allow a little control of one’s online image.

- with AFP