Many U.S. Senators and Representatives are tweeting opinions, updates, images, documents, etc. these days, and Twitter can be a very useful, if not an essential tool, to learn about what’s going on directly from each member, especially regarding controversial legislation such as SOPA. An easy to use but powerful web tool (it's also free) named PolitickerUSA can save you a lot of time and effort informing you as to what members of congress are tweeting about right now. In one location you can quickly access the non-stop real-time stream of tweets from Senators, Reps, President Obama, go [...]

Related Topics: How To: Twitter | Search Engines: People Search | Search Engines: Real Time Search | Twitter: Search

Topsy, the Twitter-focused real-time search engine, has launched a new tool aimed at helping users find the right people to follow called Topsy Expert Search. The blog post seems to suggest that this is a "labs" product, but there's a prominent link to Expert Search right from Topsy's home page. Either way, Expert Search seems like a tool that's not quite ready for prime-time. Consider, for example, an expert search for SEO: (click for larger version) No disrespect to the account holders who are listed for that query -- they very well may be SEO experts. But I think most readers [...]

Related Topics: Search Engines: People Search | Search Engines: Real Time Search | Topsy | Twitter

Not long ago WhitePages.com quietly introduced its own local business search. The site, the original "people search" engine, has always offered "yellow pages" listings but now the company has built its own database in the background. Accordingly, WhitePages claims its data are more accurate than you'll find on search engines and Google in particular. The company goes directly after Google in its press release and a related video introducing local business search: For example, if someone was using Google to look up contact information for Target in the Seattle area, more than 6,000 result [...]

Related Topics: Google: Critics | Google: Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: People Search | Search Engines: Social Search Engines

Wouldn't it be great if you could use a search engine without needing to touch your mouse? You know, type your query and then scan and even click through to results without actually clicking the mouse button? Or maybe you're looking for an alternate source of search advertising data, like how many advertisers are bidding on certain keywords. Or maybe you're into something more mundane, like finding an apartment to call home. In this roundup of five search tools you may not know about, I'll introduce you to possible answers to those questions and a couple more. This is the third in my occas [...]

Related Topics: Features: General | Search Engines: Meta Search Engines | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Engines: People Search | Twitter

Ever searched for yourself on Google and come away dissatisfied, especially if someone else you share a name with seems to dominate the results? Ever looked for someone else and been disappointed that you couldn't find the person you wanted? Google's new "Profile Results" launching today aim to correct both problems. Since the end of 2007, Google has allowed people to create Google Profile pages for use with certain Google services. For example, if you created content in Google Maps, your Google Profile let you share who you were with others using that service. The same profile also [...]

Related Topics: Features: General | Google: Accounts & Profiles | Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Google: OpenSocial | Google: Search Customization | How To: SEO | Legal: Privacy | Search Engines: People Search | Top News