Search How-to
- How does Spokeo search work?
- What is an address book import?
- What is a social network import?
- What are the different ways to search?
- Can I search people by name?
- How come Spokeo cannot find some of my friends?
- Why do Spokeo searches take a while?
- What services does Spokeo support?
- Can anyone know who I am searching?
- How does Spokeo’s tracking functionality work?
1. How does Spokeo search work?
Spokeo People Search is a real-time search technology that aggregates content based on emails and usernames across over 40 web services. Email addresses are proven to be the best way to uniquely pinpoint people’s digital identities; consequently, many recruiters, lawyers, law enforcement officers, and the general public have been leveraging Spokeo’s unique technology to complement their people research efforts.
2. What is an address book import?
When you import your address book into Spokeo, Spokeo will scan and search all your contacts across over 40 Web services in real-time, and then add all the newly discovered accounts into your Friends list. You can think of an address import as a bulk search functionality that helps you discover all your friends’ activities in one click. Spokeo does not store your password, and Spokeo does not re-access your address book after the initial import.
3. What is a social network import?
In addition to people search, Spokeo can also aggregate and keep track of all your social contacts across various social networks for you. Simply press the “Import Friends” button at the top of your account, then you can see all the various options to import your social contacts into one convenient place. After the social network import, Spokeo will apply its search heuristics to automatically enhance the imported contacts’ data, giving you new insights on your Web acquaintances.
4. What are the different ways to search?
Spokeo search supports 3 types of inputs: a) email address (ex: myfriend@email.com), b) web address or URL (ex: www.socialnetwork.com/myfriend), and c) username (ex: username). Whenever an account is found, you can track that account’s future updates by pressing the “Follow/Add” button at the top right corner. Due to technical constraints, Spokeo search does not support real-name inputs at the moment.
5. Can I search people by name?
No, Spokeo only supports email-based and username-based searches at the moment. Emails and usernames are unique identifiers for people’s digital identities on the Web; on the other hand, real names are usually hidden from public web pages. As a result, generally real-name searches are only good for offline public record searches, and they require a very different technology from Spokeo’s digital identity search.
6. How come Spokeo cannot find some of my friends?
There are many possible reasons why Spokeo cannot find some of your friends. The most common reason is that the email you provided is not the email your friend used on the social networks. Many people own multiple email addresses: some for work and some for home usage. You would need to provide Spokeo the correct key so that it can unlock the accounts for you. If you believe that there are some friends that Spokeo should have found but did not, please contact us so that we can investigate this issue further.
7. Why do Spokeo searches take a while?
All Spokeo searches are conducted in real time. Spokeo does not pre-crawl the Web like conventional search engines; rather, Spokeo finds and retrieves content from over 40 data sources in real time as you search for it. The advantage of this unconventional approach is that Spokeo results are not limited by the size of our database, and that Spokeo data is always up-to-date. The disadvantage is that you need to wait a few seconds for the real-time results to come back from different sources.
8. What services does Spokeo support?
Spokeo supports over 40+ data sources, including but not limited to social networks, photo albums, music playlists, video sites, business databases, and any RSS feed. The level of support varies from network to network because different networks require different connectivity technologies. Consequently, some networks support only search functionality; whereas, others support both import and search capabilities. Spokeo does not aggregate criminal histories, court records, and other legal documents at this time.
9. Can anyone know who I am searching?
No, all your Spokeo searches are completely anonymous. Spokeo is not a social network where people meet new friends online; rather, Spokeo is a search engine that people use to research others’ information. Spokeo does not notify anyone about what you are reading, and Spokeo does not disclose your search history.
10. How does Spokeo’s tracking functionality work?
After an account has been added into your Friends list, Spokeo will regularly go to that account to check for new updates. Whenever a new update is detected, the new update counter (the numbers next to your friends) will go up to notify you that something has changed. Your friends will not be notified in any way. The simplicity of the Friends list design allows you to keep track of hundreds of friends with ease.
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