Keeping control of your reputation on the Internet these days has become increasingly difficult. Well, for some of us. That's because every day there's more and more information available on the Internet. Your resume? Check. Pictures of you from college? Er, check. Your criminal history? Check!

Scared yet?

If you're a small business owner, knowing what the Internet says about you is especially important. That's because you want to make sure it's fair, accurate, positive, and doesn't scare customers away. The same is true if you're an entrepreneur shopping a business plan to investors. Because, let's face it, you probably don't want the guy who may write your start-up a check stumbling upon your MySpace page. That might kill the deal.

Enter ReputationDefender, a start-up that just scored $2.6 million in VC investment to help you keep your online rep clean. Specifically, they provide monthly reports that show you what people are saying about you online and they can help take down any negative mentions (provided they're not on the Better Business Bureau website, for instance). ReputationDefender also goes through pages that aren't indexed by Google to search for and destroy any wayward slander or other general nastiness.

ReputationDefender has hinged its business model on one simple fact: it's a pain for most people to get negative mentions about them on the 'net taken down. They charge $9.95 for their basic service, all the way up to $99.

We like the idea. But what do you think? Is this a service you would use? And are there enough people out there who care about their online rep to keep the business afloat?