A search engine company with a sci-fi name and a bare-bones website “received $7 million in a Series A funding round from Clearstone Venture Partners and Opus Capital Ventures” earlier this week. The company, known as “Spock,” describes itself as “the world’s largest people search engine.”
Since it’s currently only in beta, that statement led me to believe that Spock doesn’t have a lot of competitors. Still, the company claims to have “over one hundred million individuals indexed and millions added every day,” and it “expects to publicly launch in 2007.”
Also, if the term “people search engine” seems a little vague, Ken Elefant, a general partner at Opus Capital, was quick to clarify the matter. “A big chunk of the major web sites are about finding people, but there isn’t a good way to get specific information about the person,” he explained in a statement.
“Type in ‘Ken Elefant’ – on Google or Yahoo and you’ll get about 50 different websites describing places where I spoke or the Opus Capital website, but you don’t get information about me as a person.”
That’s where Spock steps in. It promises to help users “find and discover people” with an approach that would one-up Google (and Yahoo). And although the Spock service is only in beta, you can give it your name and e-mail address “to receive an invitation in the coming weeks.”
On a side note – I’m not sure if I deserve a slap on the wrist or a pat on the back, but I refrained from loading this article with Star Trek references.
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Doug is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
