People Finders
Thomson ISI offers this free database of bibliographic references to frequently cited authors. Search by author or institution name to find a profile, which might include contact and personal information, education, honors/awards, affiliations, memberships, research interests, research grants, and citations to published works. This is a good starting point when searching for experts, particularly in the sciences.
JurisPro Expert Witness Directory
JurisPro, an expert witness marketing company, offers a free directory of expert witness profiles. Search by keyword, or expert or company name. Or browse the subject index. Profiles include some or all of the following: contact information, picture of expert, introduction, Web page (hosted by JurisPro), background information, articles, references, and curriculum vitae.
American Lawyer Media offers this searchable directory of expert witnesses. Search by name, keyword, location, or other criteria to find expert witness profiles and contact information. Profiles often include a photo, full resume, e-mail contact (address hidden), education, licensing and primary expertise. You may also browse the database by expertise.
Web search company, Poogee Software Ltd., offers a search engine for finding information about people. Powered by Google, Pipl filters information from select sources in an effort to provide more relevant results. Typically, phone book entries appear at the top of the search results. These appear to come from PeopleData, Google and Yahoo.
Also forced to the top of the list are results from other people finding search tools; e.g., BirthDatabase and RootsWeb.com.
Next are "quick facts," which describe the person you seek. Source information appears to the right of the entry. This is followed by biographical sources.
In essence, Pipl serves to force more relevant Google results to the top of the hit list. You will likely see matches from genealogy sources, social networking sites and white pages. Thorough research, though, may require the use of additional search engines and sources.
We'd also like to see Pipl further filter results for specific top-level hits. For instance, common names still generate too many false hits. If a searcher were to click a biographical entry or phonebook entry, it would be helpful if Pipl then narrowed results based on the click-through data.
Scribd is an online library of documents on a vast array of topics. You may browse or search documents, groups or people (members) by keyword. Documents appear in many different formats, including Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and more.
Scribd Groups gives 2 or more members with similar interests a way to share and discuss documents or other information. You may make a group private or public.
I was able to search, browse and display documents without registering. However, uploading, downloading, and of course, joining a group requires registration.
The beta search engine crawls and indexes information about people. According to documentation at the site, it seeks out Web page bios, social network profiles, blog entries and more. It further allows members to add tags, pictures or web links, or vote on existing information to increase the relevancy of the information it provides.
Search by name, e-mail address or tag. You may also limit results by location, gender or approximate age.
Wink queries social networking sites, such as MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn and Live Spaces, to find public profiles of participants. Additionally, Wink lets you create your own Wink profile so that you may "control your name, location, description, and other contact information." Initial results show the screen name and other basic public information, such as the individual's industry and social networking affiliation (site).
Wink recently expanded the sites it queries to include some people search sources, such as The Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia.
ZoomInfo is a search engine for finding companies, people or jobs. It contains profiles on more than 36 million people and 3.8 million companies.
Initial results for company searches show the company name and location. Follow the name link to find a basic profile, which provides the following, if available: street address, phone, Web site, industry, revenues, number of employees and key people. However, be sure to verify this information. Our test queries found several errors.
Initial people search results show options, if they match what appears to be more than one person. Follow the name link to find more details, including employment history, education, professional membership and Web references. Again, take this information with a grain of salt and verify it.
Note: Registration and log-in may be required to display some information. Access to executive profiles requires a paid subscription.
The Political Graveyard
Find interesting facts about politicians. Currently, the site offers two versions. This link takes you to the old, but more stable, version. You can find the link to the new version, which contains facts about 14,000 additional politicians, on the home page. Find politicians by name, city/state, year of birth/death, or jurisdiction/office held.
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