| VCAO.net has tested 6 people search engines, and | | | | assign tags - my title and industry. It would appear |
| thoese search engines are claiming that they can | | | | that the site still hassome work to do in pulling data in |
| supply some secretsauce that Google is missing in | | | | from more sources and connecting the dots |
| the people search arena. | | | | between profiles of the same person. |
| PeekYou claims more than 50 million profiles in its | | | | ZoomInfo claims more than 35 listings in its |
| index. However, the results of my search would | | | | business-oriented directory. It is focused more on |
| indicate that theindex isn't necessarily up-to-date, | | | | tracking your careerand the different places you've |
| with a query for "Adam Ostrow" yielding an old | | | | worked. The results go more than a decade into the |
| photo from my MySpace profile | | | | past, with an "Adam Ostrow"search going all the way |
| (which I thought had been taken down from public | | | | back to the very first web page I created in middle |
| viewing!), and incorrectly identifying my hometown as | | | | school, a tribute to my favorite baseballplayer Chipper |
| College Park, | | | | Jones on Geocities. Digging a little deeper, when you |
| MD, where I graduated school from three years ago. | | | | click on my profile, you see information about |
| Missing from my page are the obvious Facebook, | | | | mybusiness, although the wrong address and phone |
| LinkedIn, and othersocial profiles, although the service | | | | number is provided. For more common names, your |
| does offer the ability for users to submit information | | | | best bet on findingrelevant information is knowing the |
| about a person. | | | | company the person is currently associated with. For |
| Wink workes on the major social networks and the | | | | example, clicking on "Michael |
| Web to find people and it provides search filters such | | | | Jones" of Userplane will provide you with information |
| as location,age, and interests to help narrow down | | | | on him and his past occupations. We've previously |
| your search for common names (i.e. - "Mike Jones"). | | | | raised someconcerns over ZoomInfo's methods and |
| For myself, Wink pulledmy LinkedIn and Friendster | | | | accuracy. Nonetheless, it found some info.yoName |
| profiles, in addition to the LinkedIn profile of an | | | | searches the major social networks to return results |
| "Adam Ostrow" imposter in New York. | | | | in a tabular format so you can easily navigate |
| However, when you add "University of Maryland" to | | | | between thedifferent profiles that are found. The |
| your search, the other Adam Ostrow is removed | | | | site was successful in finding my profiles on |
| from the results, anda link to my updated MySpace | | | | Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, andan archaic Yahoo |
| profile is provided. Additionally, Wink provides Google | | | | account. yoName also allows you to do a public |
| results for the name search, whichlinks to my | | | | records search, powered by Intelius, though it willcost |
| personal blog, my Mashable author page, and a few | | | | you money to see detailed results. We first reviewed |
| press releases issued by my company over the | | | | yoName in April. |
| years. Thelatest incarnation of Wink launched last | | | | Ex.plode.us is a cross-social network search, allowing |
| September. VERDICT: Passes the taste test. | | | | you to search for both specific individuals and people |
| Spock first debuted at the Web 2.0 Expo in April. In | | | | withcertain interests on their supported sites. My |
| addition to scouring the Web, the site also includes | | | | most frequently used services - MySpace, Facebook, |
| options forusers to add information about people | | | | and LinkedIn - arenot part of their search at this |
| such as tags and relevant links. Spock did not seem | | | | time, but ex.plode.us was able to locate my seldom |
| to conclude that my LinkedInand MySpace profiles | | | | used Flickr page. While it'scurrently missing some of |
| are the same person, and thus created two separate | | | | the more popular social networks from its search, |
| listings for me. Additionally, Spock used old | | | | Ex.plode.us does index people from a fewsites that |
| "About Me" information from MySpace to create my | | | | the other's don't, such as Greatest Journal, Jaiku, and |
| biography. On the plus side, Spock did pull the most | | | | Vox.. Kristen reviewed ex.plode.us in May. |
| relevantinformation from my LinkedIn profile to | | | | |