Pipl: Digging Deep In The Invisible Web

November 12, 2009 by Sherman Hu
Filed under Track & Monitor

Pipl claims to be “the most comprehensive people search on the web“.

Personally, I’ve attempted using Google and Yahoo to search for personal and business contacts – sometimes with success, and in other cases, BIG FAIL.

Where Pipl claims their strength is tapping into the little known but very important part of the web called “the deep web“.

Since most personal profiles, public records and other people-related documents are stored in databases and not on static web pages, most of the higher-quality information about people is simply “invisible” to a regular search engine. Enter Pipl…

Check out Pipl.com

Pipl’s query-engine helps you find deep web pages that cannot be found on regular search engines. It’s designed to retrieve information from searchable databases and extract facts, contact details and other relevant information from personal profiles, member directories, scientific publications, court records and numerous other deep-web sources.

Pipl claims they’re “using advanced language-analysis and ranking algorithms to bring you the most relevant bits of information about a person in a single, easy-to-read results page”.

A Personal Search

You can perform searches via “Name”, “Email”, “Username” and even “Phone” numbers.

I tried a quotation search for my name and the results were spot on.

Likes: Deep web search, fast search engine

Dislikes: Why no RSS feed? This way, I can subscribe to my feed in my Google Reader and be notified automatically of any updates.

Deep & Wide

Have you tried Pipl? I’m sure you’ll find decent results searching for your own name, but how about digging deep into a colleague or competitor’s name for some interesting intel?

Would you like to weigh in on how you see this tool being of benefit as part of your arsenal of tracking and monitoring tools? Your feedback is “deeply” appreciated