The idea behind Timeline is simple: Facebook basically arranges all of your posts, comments, uploads, and likes chronologically from the day you joined. This allows your friends to easily navigate an approximation of your ‘life story,’ from your birth to your graduation from college to your momentous decision to Like Jolly Ranchers on July 10th, 2009. Whatever you think of the mandatory change, Timeline aims to provide users with a better way to preserve memories and share more of their story beyond the most recent update and wall post.

The idea is ingenious in its own way, but I don’t think you can call it ‘new’; after all, we were sorta there first! If you’ve spent any time on Spokeo browsing celebrities through our awesome, new Famous People search feature (introduced last month), you may have noticed our timeline feature that arranges key events in the life of the celeb chronologically in a fun, informative format. These celeb timelines, like the rest of a Spokeo Famous Person profile, are assembled entirely by our complex algorithms. These algorithms scour a huge mass of celeb-related data and ‘determine’ key events in their lives: marriages, award nominations, the release of an album, a stay in the State pen – important milestones in the life of an individual.

Let’s say you want to know a little more about that Justin Bieber fellow you’ve been hearing so much about: Where the heck did he come from? Why is he on every television screen and magazine cover in America? Why is his hair like that? All valid questions. Simply enter the mop-topped little scamp’s name into Spokeo and look for the handy timeline (located under “News) and you’ll be a Bieber savant in a matter of seconds. It’s a quick and easy way to get the scoop on the story of your favorite celeb, without having to read a long block of text on Wikipedia. Not only that, but you’ll have access to the largest free database of celeb photos on the web, along with videos, news and more. Try it today!

“A Savage Garden CD…Pleather Moon Boots…a DVD copy of Leprechaun: In The Hood (starring Ice-T)!? It’s like they know me!

Well, that’s because they do know you to some extent; websites like Amazon or Facebook create algorithms based on user-preferences and behavior to determine what content you see in hopes of improving your user-experience, holding your interest and, if possible, getting you to buy something. This is all the result of a growing trend on the web in recent years known as “personalization.” While personalizing the web for each person may seem like a logical step towards making the web more user-friendly, there are a surprising number of dissenting voices.

I read an interesting book a few months ago by one of them called The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You. The book’s author (Eli Pariser) is one of many critics of the personalizing trend. These critics worry that altering or filtering content based on a machine’s idea of our identity will only keep us in a bubble with other like-minded people who see only the news and information they “want” to see. Pariser’s argument has a definite political bent, as he feels that personalization is inimical to Democratic ideals, a Balkanization of the web that “filters” access to challenging viewpoints and new ideas. (For example, if Amazon didn’t personalize recommendations, I might be a little more open-minded and able to break out of my pleather moonbooted cocoon.)

While opponents of the “personalization” trend have put forth intelligent critiques, there has recently been some push-back. An article by Farhad Manjoo over at Slate reports on a new study conducted by Eytan Bakshy, an Information theorist at the University of Michigan, which seems to indicate that the web is not so much of an echo-chamber as critics like Pariser may think. Bakshy’s experiment looked at two different groups on Facebook and the ways they shared links with their ‘friends.’

Facebook runs an algorithm called EdgeRank that calculates which friend’s links show up in your feed – if it’s a close friend with whom you communicate a lot with on the site, for instance, you’ll see their links before you see any links shared by a second cousin whom you friended 3 years ago. Bakshy used an algorithm of his own to randomly censor which links each group saw: one group would see links shared by their friends (and could thus choose to share them with their own group of Facebook friends), and the other group would not see those links (but could very well find them on their own and choose to share the links themselves).

Bakshy’s experiment found two important things: firstly, the closer you are with someone on Facebook, the more you’ll share their links. That seems obvious enough, and seems to confirm Pariser’s echo-chamber thesis. The other finding, however, is equally simple but also surprising: we still share a bunch of links we get from weak ties. These “weak” links come from people outside your bubble of like-minded friends who are likely visiting websites you don’t look at on a daily basis. These links introduce “novel” information into the system, and considering the fact that most of your Facebook friends are weak ties, the social network experience may not be as sheltered as you think (we’re still seeing a lot of links posted by those weird distant cousins, and sharing them too).

The debate is by no means over, of course. It’s clear that it deserves further investigation and study. We here at Spokeo People Search have a vested interest in this topic, as we are all about bringing people together and providing equal access to information. No matter where you stand on the issue, I think we can all agree that the Internet should be a place to open your mind and expand your knowledge.

10. Miley Cyrus – MTV’s Punk’d is returning and Miley will serve as one of the guest hosts. See her punk Khloe Kardashian Odom here.

9. Harry Burkhart – Harry Burkhart has been charged with setting a large series of fires across the Los Angeles area. You can read about the investigation here.

8. Kobe Bryant – Kobe’s wife recently filed for divorce and he also has been recovering from knee problems. On a brigher note, Kobe recently surpassed 28,000 career points!

7. Beyonce Knowles – Wondering if Beyonce is still pregnant? The answer is NO! Beyonce and Jay-z are now parents to a baby girl which they named Blue Ivy Carter. Congrats!

6. Cameron Boyce – Cameron Boyce is a newbie to our list. Boyce recently landed a co-starring role on the Disney Channel comedy series, Jessie.

5. Kim Kardashian – Although Kim is highly searched, she isn’t highly beloved at the moment. One group is campaigning to increase taxes for Kim and other fellow millionaires, and another group wants to boycott all things Kim Kardashian.

4. Taylor Swift – Taylor Swift definitely had a good year, with her tour coming in at number 4 on the list of the highest grossing tours of 2011. In other news, it is rumored that Swift has been offered the role of Eponine in Tom Hooper’s new “Les Miserables” movie.

3. Barack Obama – Our 44th and current President is busy with his re-election campaign and recently joined Instagram, which may help with the hipster vote.

2. Selena Gomez – Selena has decided to take a break from music and focus on her acting career. She is already involved in 2 film projects, so this teen sensation isn’t going anywhere.

1. Justin Bieber – Not only was Justin Bieber the most searched for person on Spokeo in December (and most of the year), he was the most searched for person on Google in 2011! I think it’s safe to call 2011 the year of the Bieber.

Will Bieber’s reign continue in 2012? Check in next month to find out!

Spokeo offers multiple ways for you to search someone: first and last name, reverse phone, reverse email and username. While most users have great success with these search options, we are well aware that there are certain cases where you’ll need to try something else to find what you’re looking for. For example, what if you want to find info on somebody, perhaps a neighbor, for whom you only possess an address? Well, today you’re in luck:

Introducting Spokeo Reverse Address Search!

Simply enter the full address (city and state too, if you can) into the search bar and hit enter; within seconds you’ll have a full report with tons of info on current and past residents: name, phone number, age, marital status and more.

Believe me, there are plenty of scenarios where reverse address search comes in handy. I just thought of one, actually. See, my family has a neighbor who lives across the alley, a kindly, soft-spoken postal worker by the name of Harry. While I was growing up, Harry and his wife would always pass me by while I played in the backyard. For years our relationship was limited to quiet nods and smiles until one day, around my freshman year of college, he walked by our driveway, looked me right in the eye and called out with a broad smile,

“Hi, Phillip!’

This puzzled me. There was a lot that puzzled me during those college years, of course (for example: why was I still living in my parent’s house?) but by that time I was pretty confident in thinking that my name was Patrick, and not Philip.  I looked around to see if there was anyone else who he could be addressing. Nope, he was talking to me. He thought my name was Philip; in the awkwardness and nervouness of the moment I was unable (or unwilling) to correct him, so I merely waved as he walked away. “I’ll correct him next time,” I told myself, and went back inside.

I never corrected him. I am now 26 years of age and he still lives across the alley from my parents. Whenever I visit my parents and happen to see Harry, he still calls me “Philip.” For nearly a decade Harry has been calling me Philip, and all because I was too afraid to embarass him all those years ago. Now it’s too far gone, you see. To this day, I am unsure of how or why he thought my name was Philip; He was a postal worker, so maybe he remembered addresses better than he remembered names.

If we’re being perfectly honest, I should admit that I don’t even think his name is “Harry.” (Maybe I think his name is Harry because he looks like Harry Dean Stanton). Either way, thanks to Spokeo Reverse Address Search, we both can enter the other’s address and find out.

Try a reverse address search today!

We here at Spokeo are enjoying the holidays, as well as taking a look back at a wonderful year. 2011 was certainly the most eventful year in Spokeo history, with redesigns, tweaks, improvements and fun new features galore. Let us count the ways!

Well, first of all, it was a huge year for us in terms of traffic and press. Thanks to a wave of social media buzz, the first few weeks of 2011 saw an exponential spike in traffic; our renowned customer service team kicked their impressive operation into high-gear, responding to each and every email and answering every phone call as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Due to the influx of first-time visitors, we thought it was a good idea to review Spokeo’s opt-out and removal process for our readers. This renewed burst of attention culminated in a Time Magazine cover story (!) about people search and data aggregation. Not bad for a site created by a couple of college buddies in mom’s basement!

On the product side, we added a slew of fancy new features and made a fair share of improvements to the site’s design and layout, as well. Our phone search page was the first to get the makeover treatment, followed by our name and reverse email search features. For mobile and tablet users, we also made great strides with our mobile site. For users searching people by first and last name, we added a very helpful location auto-suggest feature, which allows you to narrow your name search down by location and find the person you’re looking for even faster.

And it doesn’t stop here. We made dealing with annoying telemarketers easier by adding this cool feature. We also started our very own Affiliate program. (Have a website and want to advertise Spokeo?  It’s free to join! Click here to read more.) And, as if that wasn’t enough, we added the largest (and certainly most fun) feature of all – Spokeo Famous People Search. Simply go to the search bar and enter the first and last name of a celebrity, living or dead, and you’ll have access to the most comprehensive database of celeb profiles, photos and videos on the net.

While 2011 was a great year for Spokeo (did I mention that our team doubled?), we plan on making 2012 even better for our users. You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Introducing Spokeo Famous People Search!

This is big news, folks. With over a million profiles on anyone you can imagine, living or dead, Spokeo Famous People Search takes the guilt out of America’s guiltiest pleasure. If they’re famous, they’re here: Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Bill Gates, Mickey Mantle… the list goes on. Each celebrity profile has the latest news, videos and photos available – think Wikipedia with a little bit of TMZ thrown in for good measure. To accomplish the huge task of putting together all these profiles, our world-class engineers have harnessed the cutting-edge power of semantic technology to identify and categorize millions of celeb bios, photos, videos, news and just about everything else. Kill some time (or lots of it) by browsing Spokeo’s photo viewer, which boasts access to the largest collection of celebrity photos on the web. We are proud and excited to be bringing people search into the future. Searching celebs has never been this fun.

Some cool features:
- Millions of photos – the largest collection of celeb photos freely available on the web.
- Simplified timeline showing important events in the life of each famous person.
- Relationship information ranging from family and friends to love interests and flings.
- Realtime Twitter map of celebrity spottings and whereabouts.

Head to our homepage and start searching!

The holidays are the time of year where we give (and receive) presents, spend valuable time with loved ones, and eat a truly shameful amount of sugar cookies baked in the shape of Christmas trees. It’s also a time where we reconnect with family and friends we may have lost touch with during the course of the year.

That’s where Spokeo comes in. Large numbers of our subscribers use Spokeo’s people search technology to find information on loved ones and friends during the holidays. We offer a few different kinds of searches:

1. Name Search (e.g. ‘Santa Claus’). Remember: you can add city and state too if you want to narrow it down.
2. Email Search (e.g. ‘santaclaus@northpole.gov‘)
3. Phone Search (e.g., ’555-123-4567′)
4. Username Search (e.g. ‘SantaClaus99′)

To perform a search, simply go to our main page and type in the name, email address, phone number or online username into the search bar and hit enter; our site immediately identifies which kind of lookup you are performing and generates a full report within seconds. Do you want to send out Christmas cards to your out-of-state cousins but don’t know their address? No problem – enter their first and last name or phone number and you’ll have their address faster than you can say “ten lords a-leaping.” Not sure what to get your friend for a gift? Search his email address to check out his Amazon wishlist – hmm, Mariah Carey‘s Christmas album it is, then!

10. Jennifer Lopez – JLo has been busy driving Fiats, dating, and preparing for a greatest hits album, but remember – she’s still Jenny from the block.

9. Jose Pimentel – Jose Pimentel was arrested on November 20, 2011 by the New York City Police Department for allegedly plotting to bomb New York City. You can read more about the case here.

8. Miley Cyrus – Miley recently celebrated her 19th birthday, Happy Birthday! The party included a unicorn and Bob Marley cake – far out.

7. Kim Kardashian – Kim may not be number one on our list, but the question “Was Kim Kardashian’s wedding fake?” came out at number one on Ask.com’s list of most popular topics for 2011.

6. John Pike – John Pike is the police officer who pepper-sprayed a row of Occupy protesters at UC Davis a few weeks ago. The incident has become an internet meme and has a Tumblr page devoted to the photoshopped images.

5. Shawn Perry – Shawn Perry was the 39-year-old pilot whose commuter plane crashed into the Superstition Mountains the day before Thanksgiving. You can learn more about the incident here.

4. Silvio Berlusconi – Berlusconi announced his resignation. He is the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy.

3. Barack Obama – Our president is currently working on his re-election campaign, as well as the GOP bill and economy.

2. Selena Gomez – Selena recently attended the American Music Awards and donned a Giorgio Armani gown. She also accessorized with some Bieber, which pulled the whole look together.

1. Justin Bieber – Bieber has reclaimed the number one spot! Not only is he the number one Spokeo people search, but he’s also the most searched person of the year on Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The Bieber Fever is alive and strong.

“Hello?”
“Hi Doug! My name is Mike Tait and I’m with ComTechCorp Inc, and I have a few questions for you.”
“Actually, I’m eating at the mome-”
“Great! We love food too. Why I ate some food yesterday, as a matter of fact!”
“Is that right.”
“Cool if I call you Mr. Food, Doug?  Are you really getting the most out of your wireless conne…”
“I have to go…wash my…car. Or dog. Bye.”

There’s no doubt about it: telemarketers are annoying. And not only do they call at all hours of the day, but they often call from hard-to-trace (usually toll-free) numbers.

That’s where we come in. Since many of you are already using Spokeo’s reverse phone search capability in order to find information on those irritating unknown numbers, we decided it was time to add a new feature for all us victims of unwanted calls. Now you can simply enter the number (i.e. 1-800-555-5555) into the search bar and you’ll be taken to a page where you can file a complaint to help identity and report intrusive callers. Some numbers will have multiple reports filed by other users, who often possess info on where the calls are coming from and how to stop them.

No other people search site with reverse phone capabilities has anything like it. We hope it helps you find a little peace and quiet.

Spokeo Mobile is the perfect way to search people while you’re on the go. Whether you’re on the bus or in line at the movies, Spokeo Mobile puts our powerful name search, reverse phone search, email search and username search features right in the palm of your hand. While Spokeo has been available on your mobile phone for some time now, our engineers and designers have worked hard to implement some big design improvements to ensure the most satisfying user experience possible, including a new streamlined interface and design that automatically adjusts and rearranges itself according to vertical or landscape modes.

We’ve also fine-tuned Spokeo’s mobile site to work on a wide variety of both mobile phone and tablet devices, including but not limited to iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Honeycomb tablets. Considering that experts are predicting that mobile internet users will outnumber desktop internet users within the next five years, we thought it was high time to make those improvements. We think you will be very pleased with the results – now fire up the iPhone and start searching!