Help

Frequently Asked Questions

Searching on Spock

Search is cool, but I want more!!!

Adding information

Your search result on Spock

Spock Data and Privacy

What is Spock?

Spock is a people search engine. We help you find stuff... about people.

How do I search?

See that text box up at the top of every page? Go ahead and type in a name, e-mail, location, or tag to find people. For example, you can find atheists who are democrats and have brown hair or San Franciscan women age 20 to 22. Want to know how I specified age and location? Just click "Advanced".

What information can I find?

Spock can find much more than a traditional search engine. In addition to web links, we extract information like pictures, relationships, and even news about individuals.
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Can I save my searches and come back to them later?

Of course! When you are viewing a search result click on the "Save" button to add that person to your "My People" list. Whenever you want to find them again, you can "Search My People" rather than trying to sift through results for everyone. You can do this without registering for an account, but its better if you do. Registering allows you to save an unlimited number of people.

Can I get news and alerts about people?

Why not! When you click the "Save" button, Spock will start collecting news for people you save and start aggregating it. People news will then show up on your home page; you can also get alerts through an email digest. If you build a big collection of people, Spock will bubble the most relevant information to the top so you can focus on what's important.

Can I have Spock find everyone I know for me?

That's easy! (OK, not really but we're pretty good at it.) When you sign up for Spock we allow you to scan contacts you have from web mail systems, outlook, or even social networks. When you do we will look those people up and find them on the web. No sending invites or "adding friends" is required. Give it a shot, it might surprise you.
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How do I add information to my search result?

After logging in, click on the "Edit" button on the top right of your screen. From here, you can add news, websites, and more to your Spock search result.

What type of information should I add?

The goal of Spock is to create the world's best people search engine, when you add content to your search result make sure it helps the goal of search. The best contributions meet three criteria, they are 1) distinguishing, 2) objective, and 3) respectful.

I found myself on Spock, what do I do?

Unlike traditional search engines, Spock encourages you to help manage your data! That means that you can claim your own search result and begin to shape what is found about you on the web. By claiming your result you will be alerted anytime Spock finds something new about you. More importantly you will be able to add information that will help others find you.

How do I claim my search result?

To claim a search result on Spock, first you need to sign up. Once you have, click "Claim" on the upper right hand corner of the search result we have for you. When you have successfully claimed a search result, it will be tied to the account you created upon sign-up. For this reason, please do not claim your spouse or dependents' search results - Spock will think you are the same person!

I prefer not to have a search result, can I remove it?

Of course! But to make it easy on you, we do have one small favor to ask. Before you ask us to remove your search result we need you to remove all of the publicly available links about you from the Internet. You see, Spock routinely crawls the web for links, pictures, and other information about people. Deleting your search result won't prevent us from finding you again...and again...and again. To disappear from Spock you have to remove your data at the source! If the source has already been removed, go ahead and flag your search result, enter "Source removed" in the comments field, and we'll get rid of the Spock search result for you.
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Where does Spock get its data from?

Spock collects and aggregates information from many different sources. Our primary sources are:
  • Public Internet -- We search for information on bio pages, social networks, news sites, blogs, directories - pretty much every place imaginable on the web.
  • Partner Information -- Spock has rights to data that is not generally available on the web, but is licensed for redistribution by Spock.

I found incorrect information on Spock, what should I do?

Fix it! You can flag a search result by clicking the "flag" link at the top right. You will be prompted to enter in a reason for the flag (i.e. incorrect, offensive, or personal information) and any additional comments you may have. Once something has been flagged, our team will review the flagging and remove items as appropriate.

How does Spock help protect my privacy?

Spock cares very much about privacy. Unlike traditional search engines we try to never show personally identifiable information such as your phone number, e-mail address, or other similar information without your permission.
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