People Who Need Pipl

There are many, many, many tools on the internet that specialize in searching for people, both living and dead. I've covered some of the best people-search sites in an earlier post.

But a site called Pipl.com warrants a separate write-up. This is partly because of what it does for you now, but also, partly, for what it might do in the future. Sort of like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize!

Fanny Brice, an original People person

Pipl does a very nice job of searching on a name, and organizing the results...telephone book listings in one section, Facebook and other social networks in another, business results in yet another, and so on.

But Pipl also has some good access to the so-called invisible web...that vast, dark, mysterious repository of information that doesn't show up on ordinary searches. These are sources that require a subscription, disallow search engines, require dynamic lookups, or are otherwise out of view from the googlebots and search spiders that scour the internet for information.

And that's where Pipl's future potential lies. Right now, it's more a lookup for friends, acquaintances and family members of fairly recent vintage (and be sure to Pipl your own name as well...might as well see what shows up!).

But as Pipl search adds more and more deep content, it will grow in value as a genealogical tool as well, revealing ever-more information about your ancestors and your own family's history.

So take a look, and even if nothing of major import shows up for now, this is a site worth bookmarking, and coming back to from time to time.


Visit the main page of Free Genealogy Tools for more, umm, free genealogical tools.

And don't forget to also check for your family history at Ancestry.com and NewspaperArchive.com. These are subscription databases, but they are among the most powerful research tools available for looking into family roots.