[LINK] 'Spock.com hopes to become the Google of people searches'

[Roger Clarke]

>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070808-spock-com-hopes-to-become-the-google-of-people-searches.html
>
>Spock.com hopes to become the Google of people searches
>By Jacqui Cheng | Published: August 08, 2007 - 11:14AM CT
>
>A new web search service has launched, but this one doesn't provide
>results for the entire web-it only provides results about people.
>Spock.com went into public beta today after several months of private
>testingand prides itself in providing the "richest people search
>experience on the web."
>
>"Searching for people is one of the most important applications on the
>web; however, the user experience is highly fragmented and unsatisfying
>today," claims Spock CEO Jaideep Singh. That's why the site's sole
>purpose is to index and gather information about individuals and offer
>that data when users search for general terms such as "blogger,"
>"actor," or even specific names.
>
>While creepy-sounding at first, Spock.com does allow users to manage
>their own "profiles" on the site by allowing them to import information
>from any number of places, such as LinkedIn, Friendster, and MySpace.
>Users can also add tags about themselves, upload pictures, and list
>contact information if they so choose. If a web site is going to try to
>index everything about you, you may as well beat it to the punch by
>including accurate information, right?
>
>However, the general public can also add tags, pictures, and other
>information about you as well, possibly leaving the integrity of the
>personal profile in doubt. As Wikipedia has learned, some members may
>choose to go through and vandalize a number of profiles with false or
>damaging information, And if someone adds you to the site against your
>will... well, you're out of luck. Once you're on, you're on-especially
>if you aren't managing your own profile. Spock cofounder Jay Bhatti told
>AFP that each profile "will go through a strict process based on quality
>insurance [sic]" to ensure that it's not fake or incorrect, but it's
>unclear how site administrators plan to check every single fact posted
>about every single person on the site for correctness.
>
>This naturally raises concerns from privacy advocates about personal
>information being organized, collected, and offered to others online
>without one's knowledge or consent. And with Spock claiming to have
>already indexed some 100 million individuals-with another million being
>added each day-it seems pretty likely that a large number of those
>people are not managing their own profiles. Spock is unlikely to be held
>accountable for potentially false information that users are posting
>about other users, however. The 1996 Communications Decency Act has
>repeatedly been interpreted by courts as absolving web site operators of
>materials being posted by third parties. But if Spock profiles begin to
>look like those that have shown up on gossip site dontdatehimgirl.com,
>then that question could be revisited once again.

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW