Technically Speaking

123People officially launched this morning. Now many of you are saying, “Great, another competitor to Google, Yahoo, etc… another fail whale in the making.” That was my original thought, but I had to give it a try. I figured I’d put it through it’s paces, see how good this site was. What they are doing is not competing with any search engine, but rather enhancing the search experience when you are looking for people you know or knew. Cool concept so far, but I had to test this out for myself.

I went to the site and was greeted by the below usual stripped down search look that we are all use to seeing these days on a search site. Nothing new here.

Well I said I was going to put it through it’s paces, right? I went and searched for someone that I haven’t been able to find for over 14 years now. Yes, I’ve tried countless searches on different sites in the past few months, but since the person’s name (real last name) also is a Hip Hop term, it was becoming pointless in trying to find him. A lot of hip hop artists were actually using his real last name which is “Samples” and calling them self DJ Mike Samples, DJ Fred Samples, etc… You get the picture.

Well with 123People, not only do you get a string of endless links, but you get social network connections, YouTube connections, as well as e-mail addresses, article links, etc… The complete person search results you want. The most important thing here, is that you also get pictures. You are not just receiving back a spit result list of articles and links where it “might be” where the person you are searching for is located at online.

Well I found test case #1. I was quite shocked to find that he also found the old band page like 4 days ago. So since he found the old band page first, I said, “One more missing member to find.” I figured the test wasn’t really fair since he had actually found the band page first about 4 days ago on a Saturday night around 1:30am.

This next person was going to be harder to find, since up to now I couldn’t find him on the normal social network searches, Google searches, etc.. 123People found him in one simple search! The picture find really helps as he has one of those people with non-gender specific first names – “Shannon“. I found him by his picture which linked to his MySpace page. Now I’m putting it out there for anyone that knows him, since he hasn’t been online since 6/1/08 according to his MySpace page – if you know him, or know of him – ping him for me please.

Technically Speaking, isn’t it about time you actually found those people from your past lives vs searching endlessly on Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, etc.. and finding endless links to what you are not searching for? It’s quite refreshing to write about a new company that actually does what it says it is doing. btw, didn’t you like that I didn’t use one word from the usual press release?

Unspoken Promise – If you have a MySpace account, add them. Yes, it’s my son’s band who you saw here on this blog earlier this past summer playing on my drum kit.

The recording they have up is only a “laptop in the middle of the room” recording on a song they call “Shattered Glass“. They are planning on going in the studio to get a real demo with vocals done soon.

Technically Speaking, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

So you have some voter apathy and think your vote doesn’t count. Here is a view into the future, November 7th, 2008 to be exact. I know the instant classic Marshall Kirkpatrick is loving this.

Technically Speaking, if you don’t vote, YOU might make it to a real video – maybe!

Just wanted to say congrats to Slicehost! Glad to see success come to you Matt, and of course your business Slicehost. Oh and I’m glad to see you have kept the old business/domain still alive.

ExpertCEO a private, on-line community for senior executives, today announced the general availability of its innovative platform connecting corporate leaders to one another and the resources they require.

ExpertCEO members can quickly solve real-world business problems by confidentially exchanging ideas with peers, asking questions of experts across a range of disciplines and locating trusted resources. By applying social networking technology to enable CEOs to solve real-world business issues, they intend to make the social aspects of social networking more like business networking.

This new community provides CEOs with instant access to valuable information, a variety of perspectives and thought-provoking content–all within a secure environment. Lively, high-level site discussions span a wide variety of topics including financing, board governance, compensation, offshore product development and options’ vesting acceleration on acquisition.

Members benefit from a panel of expert advisors who are “on call” to answer their questions. Those responding to queries include James D. Robinson III, general partner of RRE Ventures and former CEO & chairman of American Express; David Hornik, General Partner of August Capital Partners.

To assist with its own strategy and growth, ExpertCEO has established an Advisory Board comprised of accomplished professionals with unique understanding of senior executives’ concerns and behavior, as well as domain knowledge around use of the Web to share information and ideas. Advisory board members include Gordon Crovitz, columnist and former publisher of The Wall Street Journal; Thomas J. Friel, former CEO & chairman of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles; and Kathy Yates, CEO of AllBusiness.com.

Take a virtual tour of their services right here. See a preview of their services here.

Technically Speaking, in this down turned economy their first core members could be some ex-CEO’s, or CEO’s that are teetering on extinction.

SpeedDate.com is one year old and in that year’s time, they have successfully hosted over 18 million dates as well as receiving funding from Menlo Ventures to the tune of $8 million. Since launching in October 2007, SpeedDate hosts an average of 120,000 online dates per day, a new date begins on the site every second of the day.

One of the highlights of the first year came on Valentine’s Day, when SpeedDate.com user Francesca Salcido dated over 300 people in a single 24-hour marathon session. The event attracted worldwide press coverage including ABC’s Good Morning America. The site’s themed dating nights around events such as Super Tuesday and the summer Olympics also drew large dating numbers.

SpeedDate.com’s patented system allows singles to meet each other through 3-minute online speed dates using webcams, audio, and instant messaging. SpeedDate is available by visiting www.speeddate.com and as a popular application on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and meebo.

SpeedDate.com was founded by Stanford Business School Graduates Simon Tisminezky and Dan Abelon.

Technically Speaking, while I have never seen the point of speed dating or speed anything (tons of copy cats that employ the same technique), it’s obvious that this speed date had a successful first year. Congrats.

In this current day of information overload, I figured I’d offload a few tidbits in my blog post today. If I had the time each day to do this, it would be like the good ol’ days here on Technically Speaking. Unfortunately, only time these days to catch my breath occasionally. While the economy is in the dumps, my company Lookery as tweeted by Todd the other day, is booming. We are all busy and slammed with enough work for 3 or 4 people.

Check Your State – If you are interested to see where your state stands in the general election coming up on November 4th, you need to go to this site. Currently, Missouri is now leaning Obama, but just last week it was leaning McCain. Thanks to @billstreeter for the original URL he sent over which lead me to the above.

Cloud Contacts – This is Allen Stern of Centernetworks new start up called Cloud Contacts. I say “new start up”, as those who remember, he had another great start up that didn’t quite take off a little more than a year ago. That one was dealing with running ads on video content. Again, and probably like this one – he was ahead of his time. Read the great write up here on CNET by Rafe Needleman.

Scott Rafer in Berlin – Wow, almost is like dejavu for us guys who started Lookery. Last time Scott was in Berlin, that was when this whole Lookery journey started. Though last time, he was on a well deserved vaca, this time he was speaking at the Berlin FBDevCon. Side Note: Scott, I’m usually still groggy and sans laptop connected at 7am my time zone!

This Is Cool - Especially if you are a smoker (which I am)! The idea seems like it could work, only the one time I tried the patch, as soon as I stepped down successfully – I went back to smoking with no nicotine input into my system. I am hoping that Drew does quit for good. Smoking Everywhere is what he is using, and I wonder if you can really “light up” like the video showed.

Technically Speaking, if you haven’t gone Lookery yet, you really need too with the new cool site design as well as the enhanced audience analytic data page. What I really enjoy is the more direct message (tagline) on who we are and what we are all about:

Lookery is a user-targeting service that helps site owners amplify their audience data.