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Naymz.com is a blessing for those looking to control their Google reputation. It effectively lets you create a profile and then link out to all of your other profiles. Whereas LinkedIn is heavy on the networking-side, Naymz is more of a holding-tank for your brand. Best of all, Google seems to love it!

read more at: Web Development, Design, Hosting and SEO

Hiring managers are increasingly turning to Internet search engines and online networks as a means to assess candidates during the hiring process.

“Employers want to know what they’re buying, when they hire, since their companies are subject to public and legal scrutiny,” Opton said. “The first thing a recruiter will do before even picking up the telephone is Google someone’s name.”

And as society becomes more dependent on the Web, the use of Internet reputation clean-up companies will continue to trend higher, said William E. Ayen, senior instructor of information systems at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

read more on this trend in this article:  Employers sifting more thoroughly through ‘digital dirt’. BNET March 21  2008 

The more i get into it the more i like Naymz and the way it is set up. If the critics only realized what they can do with their My Naymz domain. Personally I like the option to describe ones web activity and integrate the RSS feeds of your blog(s) and other stuff. This makes your page a representative all-in-one directory. Considering the little money they charge for obtaining that domain I think more people should stand up and blow the whistle. The emphasis in the blogosphere on the invites is in my opinion somewhat overacted. My advice: give Naymz a try !!

Although the initial postings on this blog were in the dutch language my future posts will be in English.  Main goal of this blog is to guide the reader as an independent informationspecialist by assessing the critics and the praises. At the same time I will share as a Naymz user my own learning experience. 

While there are other services like Naymz I personally think Naymz has a strong competitive advantages.

It cannot be denied that Naymz ’spamming practice’ is heavily criticized in the blogosphere. This buzz is not without reason. Looking at Naymz FAQ’s learnt me however that the sender of the invites can stop any further reminders by deleting the list of invitees after the initial invite. If users act accordingly this will diminish the annoyance for a great deal .

Why am I doing this? For Smartmobs I blog on technologies of cooperation with a special interest in developments on the evolution of reputation.  I was triggered by the Naymz concept and decided to take a close look at the services.  It is my intention to learn from what others say about it and will give you my own experience to keep you posted.  

Monitoring the blogosphere on Naymz shows that people are fed up with the reminders that they receive to apply for the service. I read in the FAQ’s that the person that invites can remove the list of invitees. When you do that right after the first invite your friends won’t be bothered with what they obviously consider spam. If everyone that invited someone else removes the invitees in their account and do this by expiring the pending invitation before the mentioned date of expiration this would make a hell of a difference. So it is also the invitees choice to allow Naymz to send reminders. I assume that few who invite are aware of this.