People search site

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A people search site or people finder site is a specialized search engine that searches information from public records, data brokers and other sources to compile reports about individual people, usually for a fee. [1] [2]

Early examples of people search sites included Classmates.com [3] and Whitepages.com. [4]

See also

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Google Search is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze and rank websites based on their relevance to the search query. It is the most popular search engine worldwide.

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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

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The Names Database was a social network, owned and operated by Classmates.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Online. The site does not appear to be significantly updated since 2008, and has many broken links and display issues. Since 2007, United States and Canadian registrations do not work, and instead redirect to a Classmates.com sign up page. At least half of its members are believed to be outside the United States.

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Google Personalized Search is a personalized search feature of Google Search, introduced in 2004. All searches on Google Search are associated with a browser cookie record. When a user performs a search, the search results are not only based on the relevance of each web page to the search term, but also on which websites the user visited through previous search results. This provides a more personalized experience that can increase the relevance of the search results for the particular user. Such filtering may also have side effects, such as the creation of a filter bubble.

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Intelius, Inc. is an American public records business headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It provides information services, including people and property search, background checks and reverse phone lookup. Users also have the ability to perform reverse address lookups to find people using Intelius’ services and an address. Intelius, founded by former InfoSpace executives, was started in 2003. It is owned and operated by PeopleConnect, Inc.

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The right to be forgotten (RTBF) is the right to have private information about a person be removed from Internet searches and other directories in some circumstances. The issue has arisen from desires of individuals to "determine the development of their life in an autonomous way, without being perpetually or periodically stigmatized as a consequence of a specific action performed in the past". The right entitles a person to have data about them deleted so that it can no longer be discovered by third parties, particularly through search engines.

Google's changes to its privacy policy on March 16, 2012, enabled the company to share data across a wide variety of services. These embedded services include millions of third-party websites that use AdSense and Analytics. The policy was widely criticized for creating an environment that discourages Internet innovation by making Internet users more fearful and wary of what they do online.

Local search engine optimization is similar to (national) SEO in that it is also a process affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results. In general, the higher ranked on the search results page and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users; these visitors can then be converted into customers. Local SEO, however, differs in that it is focused on optimizing a business's online presence so that its web pages will be displayed by search engines when users enter local searches for its products or services. Ranking for local search involves a similar process to general SEO but includes some specific elements to rank a business for local search.

References

  1. "What To Know About People Search Sites That Sell Your Information". ftc.gov. Federal Trade Commission. July 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  2. Komando, Kim (February 19, 2023). "Take your privacy back: How to remove your personal data from people search sites". USA Today. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  3. "Classmates.com Becomes Probably the First For-Profit Social Networking Site : History of Information". www.historyofinformation.com. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  4. "A Short History of People Search: How It Has Transformed Over Time".