Spock - Vertical Search People

While not exactly new, it's been intriguing to watch the development of Spock, a self-described "people search application." Currently in beta release, Spock allows you to search people by name, by 'likes' or by title (marketing executive, baseball player, etc.)

But like many Web 2.0-3.0 applications, Spock allows users to edit and refine results, and registered users can manage their own profile. Users can vote to approve or reject a specific tag; unfortunately as the owner of my own profile I only get one vote.

You can guess where that leads.

There are many profiles which sport tags such as "likes hitler" and a search for Abraham Lincoln lists Spock VP Jeff Winner as the top result for the 16th President of the United States. A prank no doubt but it proves the point that vigilance is required when it comes to social media.

Whether it is Wikipedia or Spock, we are wise to pay attention to our profiles which are publicly available and in many cases, publicly editable.

I suspect Spock will address some of the platform's more glaring shortcomings in coming months. Yet, in spite of its flaws, there is a lot to applaud about Spock and applications like it.

They are ushering in the next generation of vertical search -- moving search deeper into the realms of social media.