Media Contact
Sebastian Heinzel
SVP Marketing & PR International
i5invest
Telephone: +1-646-249-5881
s.heinzel@i5invest.com
January 25, 2008
123people.com optimizes Web-Based People Search - European incubator releases "the next generation of people search on the Web"
VIENNA, Austria - January 25, 2008. i5invest, a European-based IT and mobile telecommunications incubator, today announces the European launch of 123people.com, a site designed to fundamentally improve the quality of people search on the Web. In addition to aggregating people information from globally accessible databases and networks on the Web, 123people.com also crawls country-specific Web sites to provide fast access to the most comprehensive results possible.
"We're out to change the way Web users search and discover people information," explains Stefan Kalteis, CEO of 123people.com. "123people.com combines superior search results, usability and privacy controls to offer the next generation of people search."
123people.com aggregates people-related photos, videos, social networking profiles (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and any additional publicly accessible people data that can be found on the Web, including e-mail and postal addresses and telephone numbers.
The Market's Increasing Desire for People Search Technology
People search is one of the fastest growing interests of Web users. According to a recent Technorati study, approximately 30 percent of search quieries conducted in traditional search engines like Google are people-related. However, the search results in these engines are often overwhelmingly buried in pages of unrelated results and can be frustratingly uncomprehensive.
"People data available on the Web was decentralized and time consuming to navigate. There is overwhelming demand in the market for a effective and efficient search technology. We jumped at this opportunity to introduce our 123people.com technology to the market," said i5invest founder and CEO Markus Wagner.
Everyone you (want to) know in one centralized hub
Registered users of the site have the ability to combine Web-based profiles into one centralized hub.
123people.com displays search results in two structured sections on the results page. In the "On the Web" section, any data that cannot be exactly identified as specific to a specific person appears. In the second section, additional data from social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace is displayed. In each section, the source of information is identified with a link or logo.
123people.com organizes aggregated people profiles in a dynamic hub where users can claim, tag, vote and comment on profiles.
Any registered user can easily adjust privacy settings and decide what information is or is not displayed as well as determine how much of his or her personal data is open for editing by other users.
123people.com is currently in its private beta release and not accessible to US users without an invitation code. Invitation codes will be made available upon request.
About 123people.com
123people.com revolutionizes people search on the Web. The European-based startup provides Web users with a search platform that allows every user to easily and securely find Information about "everyone you (want to) know." i5invest, led by Markus Wagner, provides 123people.com with the capital and strategic insight needed to create its search technology. For more information, visit www.123people.com.
About i5invest
I5invest GmbH, based in New York, Vienna and Salzbrug, focuses on developing and providing early stage capital for IT and mobile telecommunications ventures. Led by founder and CEO Markus Wagner and driven by a core international team of 12 seasoned entrepreneurs in a network ranging from Europe to New York, Boston and Silicon Valley in the US, i5invest powers the foundation of tommorrow's online business. For more information, visit http://www.i5invest.com and i5invest.wordpress.com.
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