Sensors and network administering


VCAO's 6 People Search Engines Testing Reports

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



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