Spokeo is an interesting online service which lets you search online available information about your friends or anyone in general. The service does this by scanning online social networking sites like Myspace,Twitter etc. and other community based services like emails, directories,blogs etc. Read on to find out how you can picture the online social presence of anyone in one shot.
You can search about a person by Name, Email, Phone Number and Username on Spokeo. It is pretty easy to use and understand.
For example if you search by username, it gives you a neat list of online profiles and blogs using that username. A quick search for username “Problogger” generated some interesting results with some amazing information.
It is to be kept in mind here that whatever informaton is dug up by Spokeo is already available on the internet for anyone to see. It just groups it according to a unique identifier like Name or Email or Username.
Another interesting feature is Friend Searcher. Just provide access to your supported Email account and Spokeo will search online information of all your contacts providing you surprising information in return. Currently the service supports Gmail, AOL, Hotmail and Yahoomail. So you can uncover what profiles your buddies are having on other social networking sites. Cool indeed!!!
Spokeo may be mostly fun or even useful in many circumstances like for parents who want to monitor their kid’s online social networking activities.
There is a flip side however. Security of your information available online may be a cause of concern for some people as anyone can search for your name or email and find your profiles on say Dating Sites for example. So, if you don’t want your parents or spouse to know you are into online Dating Sites, Spokeo’s idea may be a little uncomfortable for you.
However it scores on the amusement front. Give this service a try and let us know of your opinion in comments.
