A growing number of colleges are giving graduating students special tools to help improve their online profiles. Syracuse University uses a service called BrandYourself, which helps users push more positive results to the top of their Internet search results. It doesn’t eliminate the bad stuff an Internet search might turn up, but it does help users accentuate the positive. Because most prospective employers tend to focus on only the first page or two of what an Internet search finds, tools such as BrandYourself can be very helpful indeed. Keep in mind, it’s not just students who have something to hide who find the tool useful. Samantha Grossman, a Syracuse graduate, used BrandYourself to help would-be employers find the real her. “I just have a common name,” she said. “There would be pictures, college partying pictures, that weren’t of me, things I wouldn’t want associated with me.” She adds, “I wanted to make sure people would find the actual me and not these other people.” Tools such as BrandYourself are increasingly valuable, according to experts. “It’s becoming more and more important for students to be aware of and able to manage their online presence, to be able to have strong, positive things come up on the Internet when someone seeks them out,” says Syracuse’s career services director Mike Cahill. (AP)