It is funny how I now have a handful of posts on people search engines as these have randomly been a result of this blog. I started this blog as a way to track my research resources so that I could later reference it (which surprisingly I do quite often), but listing these resources has also helped me to branch out and see what other research resources are available. In this case, I came across Wink due to this people search engine post, and now am blogging about Spock due to this Wink post. Interesting.

Today I desperately needed a break from filling out Limited Partnership Questionnaires and so thought I would check my blog reader as I have been a little behind on doing so (a prime example being my friend Charlie mentioning me in a blog and I not noticing it until a couple weeks later … thanks again Charlie.) The TechCrunch blog, written by Mike Arrington, contained a post on Spock, another people search engine that has received some hype due to the point that they have VC funding of $7m but have yet to launch a product/service.

Spock looks like a potentially great service that will compete directly with Wink. It is currently in its beta and though I have requested a log-in, I have not received one yet. =( Due to the point that I lack the necessary login, for now I will have to rely on Mike Arrington’s review of the service (and in my opinion he is “right on” about 90% of the time).

According to Arrington the service looks pretty cool as it will have the added functionality:

• Each person is given a permanent profile page (this is very similar to Wink)
• Profile pages are tagged and those tags are ranked by the users on accuracy
• Relationship between the user and people on their page will be determined

I will follow up with a complete review when I either get a log-in or the service is launched. Ahhh… startups are so exciting.