donderdag, januari 03, 2008
Searching me, searching you
One of the things (I think) you will see rising in 2008 are specialized search engines for people. And I'm not talking about typing a name in Google, but really dedicated search engines that search the net, all social network sites, pictures and video's about your.
Now, let me tell you there is nothing wrong with looking yourself up in Google. Admit it, you have done it :-). One, it is a good method to see what other people know about you. You need to know what good and bad information your future partners, employers, friends, etc find about you. When you type in my brother's name for example one of the top hits is a link to an old site I had with his bad quiz score :-). Internet never forgets, much like elephants. Second, it is a good method to see how accurate the different people search sites are. What better benchmark than your own self?
So here it goes:
- There is always Google search to type in a name. Google finds my Blogger profile (surprise, surprise), awards I have played a role in, my blogs, linked in profile, my CV, some newsletters I've been in, redbooks I've written,... pretty accurate and expected stuff.
- Pipl.com: Just type in first and last name in this specialized search engine, and off you go. It takes a few seconds to get results (searching the 'deep web' as they call it). Pipl finds my Flickr album (that I used once), linkedin profile, blogs and publications.
- Naymz.com : an online reputation site. Don't know what to think of it yet. You get points for the amount of information you give in your profile and what others do with it. They have a free and paying service. But you can search member profiles and find a lot of it. Maintaining an online reputation and weed out the lies and misguiding facts that might pop up about you on the internet might be a next big thing.
- Wieowie.nl (Dutch): people search engine in Dutch. Nicely lists what it finds on you by category. But is doesn't really find much except for referring to Google and LinkedIn.
- Wink.com: again a people search engine. It renders a bit funny in IE, but the results are as expected.
So far, the people search engines are especially good in checking if you have a linked in profile, and do some Googling for you behind the scene. But they'll get better I'm sure.
Now, let me tell you there is nothing wrong with looking yourself up in Google. Admit it, you have done it :-). One, it is a good method to see what other people know about you. You need to know what good and bad information your future partners, employers, friends, etc find about you. When you type in my brother's name for example one of the top hits is a link to an old site I had with his bad quiz score :-). Internet never forgets, much like elephants. Second, it is a good method to see how accurate the different people search sites are. What better benchmark than your own self?
So here it goes:
- There is always Google search to type in a name. Google finds my Blogger profile (surprise, surprise), awards I have played a role in, my blogs, linked in profile, my CV, some newsletters I've been in, redbooks I've written,... pretty accurate and expected stuff.
- Pipl.com: Just type in first and last name in this specialized search engine, and off you go. It takes a few seconds to get results (searching the 'deep web' as they call it). Pipl finds my Flickr album (that I used once), linkedin profile, blogs and publications.
- Naymz.com : an online reputation site. Don't know what to think of it yet. You get points for the amount of information you give in your profile and what others do with it. They have a free and paying service. But you can search member profiles and find a lot of it. Maintaining an online reputation and weed out the lies and misguiding facts that might pop up about you on the internet might be a next big thing.
- Wieowie.nl (Dutch): people search engine in Dutch. Nicely lists what it finds on you by category. But is doesn't really find much except for referring to Google and LinkedIn.
- Wink.com: again a people search engine. It renders a bit funny in IE, but the results are as expected.
So far, the people search engines are especially good in checking if you have a linked in profile, and do some Googling for you behind the scene. But they'll get better I'm sure.
Labels: naymz, people search, pipl, wieowie
