New search engine to focus on people

VentureBeat reports that a Silicon Valley-based search engine is planning to launch by the end of the year, focusing solely on people.

Spock, as it is called, is currently conducting private beta trials, and apparently will have 100m people profiled on its database by the time it goes live.

It has reportedly received $1m in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, and plans to make money by displaying paid links.

Matt Marshall, who’s seen a demo of the search engine, says it could be a “powerful addition” to the social media space:

“This move is a no-brainer, and it makes you wonder why no one has done this yet. LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and other people-contact related sites were built in different eras, and have focused on specific subsets of people.

“Spock, however, exploits all the latest tagging technology and the exploding number of public profiles on the Web since social network sites like MySpace became popular last year.”