We all heard of people being “Googled” — where you do a search on someone’s name. I’ve done it. In fact, my name “Googled” produces 45,500 results (not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing).
A productized version of “being Googled” was launched last week called Spock. Spock is essentially a search engine destined to be the people version of Google. You can search anyone from Dick Cheney (you will get a kick out of his tags) to Larry Ellison.
I received a Spock trial beta about 6 months ago and have played around with it on and off over the past few months. What’s unique about Spock is that instead of pulling unstructured data from the wild wild west known as the Internet that is often incorrect (as ZoomInfo does), Spock leverages pre-populated, structured data from validated third party sources such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Outlook and Gmail. What’s also cool about Spock is that you can enter your own tags and have other tag you based on keywords that define you. Tagging, as you all may be aware, is important because it is essential for truly effective search.
Spock is not without its challenges. During the launch earlier this week, the site experienced horrible performance, as reported by Dan Farber. Even Friday, they still see to be having performance issues.
Additionally, some of the feature still have room for improvement. I have tried 3 times to “edit my blurb” with no luck.
Nonetheless, Spock could become a great tool for recruiters who are always looking for the next best thing to find, reach, and network with prospective candidates.
