ContactSearch 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?
- Is there a way to automatically see the full profile in name searches?
- Why can’t Spokeo find some of my friends?
- Why do Spokeo searches sometimes take a while?
- Which networks does Spokeo Reverse Email Search support?
- Can anyone know who I am searching?
- How does Spokeo’s tracking functionality work?
1. How does Spokeo search work?
Spokeo People Search uses a real-time search technology that aggregates and organizes content based on name, phone numbers, emails, and usernames across a large variety of public sources. The public data is amassed with lightning speed, and presented almost instantly in an integrated, coherent, and easy-to-follow format.
Spokeo’s unique and powerful algorithms can swiftly navigate, sift through, and collect multitudes of scattered data that are spread across hundreds of locations, and synthesize that information in one convenient summary, delivering the most comprehensive snapshot of people-related, public data offered online to date. The search results represent an unparalleled mosaic of the vast stockpiles of public information accessible, and can offer invaluable insight into both the individual being searched, as well as the different types of information published.
2. What is an address book import?
When you import your address book into Spokeo, Spokeo will scan and search all your contacts from over 80 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, and you will 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 supports 4 types of searches:
a) Name (e.g. Jane Doe)
b) Email Address (e.g. JaneDoe@Mymail.com) and/or
c) Phone Number (e.g. 888-123-4567)
d) Username (e.g. JohnDoe123)
a) Name Search
To perform a name search, simply enter the first and last name of any U.S. resident into the Spokeo search bar (e.g. Jane Doe) and click “Search.” Any corresponding listings will be displayed on the left panel of the screen and will be organized according to location. Next choose a state, followed by the city, to narrow results, and select the desired listing. To view the information attached to a particular listing click the “Individual Results” tab. You also have the option of entering the city and state after the first and last name in the search bar, to make your searches even faster. Spokeo’s unique and intuitive geo-grouping streamlines and facilitates name searches by progressively tapering results and presenting them in a coherent, easy-to-follow manner.
b) Email Address Search
To perform an email search, enter any valid email address into the Spokeo search bar (e.g. JaneDoe@Mymail.com) and click “Search.” Spokeo’s real-time technology searches through 80+ social networks and locates public information associated with particular addresses. (Results will vary depending upon the privacy settings for individual profiles.) Once a profile is found, one can choose to receive notices about profile updates by clicking the “Follow This Person” button located in the top right corner of the screen. Spokeo’s email search makes finding the owner of virtually any email address easier than ever, and can locate anyone worldwide as long as the e-mail account holder maintains a social-network profile on any of the 80+ supported networks.
In addition to the search function, Spokeo’s email search also supports webpages with RSS feeds. Therefore, one can enter the URL (webpage address) of a particular blog and click “Follow This Person” to receive notice of future updates to this type of page as well.
c) Phone Number Search
To perform a phone search, simply enter any 10 digit number in the continental United States into the Spokeo search bar, and click “Search.” Spokeo’s comprehensive reverse phone lookup works with both landlines and cell phone numbers and can link almost any phone number to an owner’s full name, address and e-mail. With over 1 billion records and 100 demographic fields, Spokeo phone lookup is the best tool to find anyone by phone number.
d) Username Search
To perform a Username search, enter a username into the Spokeo search bar and click "Search." Spokeo’s username search finds online profiles with similar usernames across the Web. Our real-time technology searches through social networks, blogs, photo albums, dating sites, music networks, video sites, ecommerce stores, and other web services to help locate the owner’s profiles, names, photos, videos, and/or any other public information that may be associated with the username.
5. Is there a way to automatically see the full profile in name searches?
Yes. Go to your account settings and check the third box titled “always show full profile in name search (skip info window)” under the “preferences” section.
6. Why can’t Spokeo 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 Reverse Email searches sometimes 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 dozens and dozens of 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. Which networks does Spokeo Reverse Email Search support?
Spokeo supports over 80 networks, 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. Will my searches be revealed?
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.