Spock: The Logic of People Search in a Web 2.0 World
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In the first part of this two-part review of Spock, the people search engine, I showed you how to search on Spock, what kinds of results it returns, and walked you through a profile. I also pointed out some of its conveniences, like the ability to forward results via email in just one click. Now I’m going to delve more deeply into Spock’s web 2.0 features.
In true web 2.0 fashion, you can add stuff to a person's profile, and vote it up or down. You can also delete certain items. Let's take another look at William Shatner's profile for an example.
This man was the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise and he has no related people?! That doesn't sound right somehow. Fortunately, it's also fixable. When you click on the related people section for someone who has no people listed as being related to them, this is what you get:
If you want to add someone, it's as easy as typing in the blank boxes. Spock even helps you:
It takes a little while for the image to settle down, but the drop down did finally show the right name and image. For the box indicating the relationship, Spock also makes suggestions, but you don't have to follow them; I added Walter Koenig at one point as Shatner's "former navigator." If no one else has voted on this person one way or another, and you're the one who added the relationship, you can remove it easily by voting (I'll explain voting in just a bit).
Adding tags and websites to a profile is even easier. On the right end of the gray bar for the titles "Tags" and "On the Web," you'll notice a white text box and a green button that says either "Add Tag" or "Add Website" as appropriate. Just put in the text, hit the add button, and you're good to go. Again, if you're the first person who has added the link or the tag, you can remove it by voting it down.
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