Searching for information on the web is something that we do on a regular basis. Search takes on different forms starting with search for information going up to search for images, videos, music and so on. With the advent of Web 2.0 and the onset of various social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Orkut, people become an important part of the daily internet as well.

Keeping this in mind, Spock.com introduces people search, an innovative service where you can get to search and find information about different people on the internet. Basically, you can enter the name or location which you want to start with and Spock provides you with results that are relevant to your search queries. You may end up getting a large number of results if your search terms are not focussed and so you need to know atleast a fair bit of details about the people you are searching for in order to know more.

How Spock Works?

First, Spock searches for information and then organizes the search results in a easy to understand manner. To get information about various persons, Spock searches on bio pages, social networks, news sites, blogs, directories and other places where it deems essential to find detailed and accessible information on people. These results are then organized based on location, age, name and other details to help others find the people easily.

Once the basic user profiles are created, it is left to the Spock community to contribute in furthering the information that was already aggregated. If you happen to come across a profile that you feel needs more information or details, then you can feel free to add tags to the profile or fill in details of your relationship with the person (like friend, colleague etc). You can also add pictures in order to help with the searches.

With a sample search as “Brad Pitt”, I was able to get the following information which I’ve used with the above Spock Widget.. So, were you able to get details about yourself using Spock? What else did you find useful about the site? Do let me know!

If you would like a Comprehensive Featured Review like this on Siteguide, contact me for details.

7 months ago, I started this blog after a lot of brainstorming about different topics that I wanted to blog about. ‘Tech’ blogs are dime a dozen out there for the simple reason that ‘tech’ today is easy to understand and implement and you need no qualification to blog about it. Also, with these blogs, the bloggers actually learn more as they continue blogging. Here are some ramblings about what I expect from blogging and this blog in the next 54 weeks!

My Mistakes

On starting this blog, I did make the mistake of overusing ads and anything else that would help me make a quick buck. I did realise soon enough that this was never going to work and I switched strategies.

The first thing I needed to do was to post quality and better content and also build relationships with those around me. As I drove along the blogging highway, I’ve learned a lot of things about myself and what I should do when I make a mistake. However, with the future beckoning, I feel that it is time to put the past behind me and make a fresh and eventful start. Below are some events that I am looking forward to over the next year..

Regularity of Posting

The frequency of posting on this blog has not been very high primarily because I’ve been overloaded with studies and the like. I’ve tried my best to post every alternate day, but it’s been a difficult road nevertheless. What I am expecting is to organize myself in a better way and plan the posts in such a manner so as to produce interesting content on a regular basis.

Increase in Traffic

The traffic is directly proportional to the frequency and regularity of posting apart from the quality of the posts as well. My primary aim over the next year would be to increase the traffic albeit gradually to a respectable level. Good traffic always inspires the blogger as well as the reader. The blogger, that’s me, can take heart that people are interested in the site and take pains to produce more quality content. The visitors, especially first-timers will be curious to know more about the site as well. This certainly is a win-win situation for both.

Widening the Niche

This blog currently talks about Web Services on the Internet. However, diversifying is always good. Diversifying within a blog’s niche to cover a wider range and variety of topics certainly adds spice to the content of the blog and also a refreshing change for the readers as well. This doesn’t mean I’ll be talking about a pet dog, it simply means I am expecting to talk about more topics and in an extensive and comprehensive manner.

Moving Hosts

Moving to a more reliable host and ensuring lesser blog downtime is one of my top priorities for the next year. Except for the occasional downtime, I have no complaints against my current host. However, I would like to eliminate that problem as well to ensure that reader experience is not compromised in the least

Promoting the Blog

It’s not about the product one sells, it’s the way that the product is promoted that makes the difference between a hit and a failure. Keeping that in mind, I would like to plan on introducing different ways of promoting the blog in various arenas. Of course, this needs to be done in tandem with increasing the frequency of posting and also with producing quality content. The more I can make the visitors hooked with the content, the more the chances of increasing my subscriber base and traffic as well.

Increase the Income

When I started of with this blog, I did know that it was a difficult road ahead, especially in terms of making money. In the last 7 months however, I’ve made considerable progress and I take heart in the fact that I’ve not quit blogging unlike most wanna-be probloggers. I didn’t start this blog to make money, I started it to create a presence for myself online.

Over the next year, I am interested in implementing strategies that would help make more money for me, at the same time providing readers an enjoyable experience. This means less of intrusive ads and problematic scripts. Also, with the new Advertise page being put up, I am expecting to make a better income with less stress on the visitors.

Interact and Socialize Better

Wherever you go, it is essential that you get along well with the neighbors. In my case, that hasn’t been a major problem. However, by next year I am interested in making more friends over the net and creating a professional relationship with other bloggers in the tech world. It is a fact that linking out to others gets others linking in to you. With that in mind, I started Sitewatch© to link to interesting posts in the week gone by.

Creating a better sense of community within the site and making people interact are certain items of priority. Commenting more on related and interesting blogs, interacting and helping out fellow bloggers, inviting bloggers for guest posts are other ideas that I would hope to implement within the next year.

Now those are some of the points I hope to cover over the next year. I certainly would require the support of my readers to do so. This post started out as part of Rishiraj’s Group Writing Project, however I simply became immersed in it . Anyway, the group writing project has some interesting prizes being given away and I would advise you to check it out!

On the joyous occasion of Diwali, I would like to extend my greetings to all readers, visitors and friends of Siteguide. Have a blast!

Siteguide is currently not monetized, except for the occasional sponsored review. Text Links from TLA were completely removed at the end of October keeping Search Engine Rankings and Google in mind. I’ve never been a big fan of Adsense or other PPC services and sometimes they just ruin the look of a blog and so those are not being used either.

However, I’ve decided to monetize the blog and go in for private advertising on Siteguide. There are a lot of advertising options available for you to publicize your site or product. They include:

• Premium 468×60 Ad Sponsorship
• 125×125 Sidebar Ad Sponsorship
• Individual Post Level Ads
• Sponsored Reviews
• RSS Advertising
• Contest Sponsorship

So, if you are interested in advertising on Siteguide, then this is the time. You can go over to the Advertise Page to check out the options available in detail. If you want to advertise, then simply drop me a line with details and a price quote.

Other methods of advertising are also open to discussion, so if you have any ideas, do let me know and we can work out a deal. If you have private advertising on your blog or site, please do tell me about your experience with it!

Sitewatch© will be a weekly feature on Siteguide, highlighting interesting posts from the week gone by. This will basically include posts from blogs that I read on a regular basis and also from other blogs that I come across.

So, here is the first edition of Siteguide Weekly Sitewatch©. It’s time for some link love!

• Darren tells why commenting on other blogs can help yours out, especially in the early stages of your blog.
• Collis gives 10 tips for people interested in selling their blog
• Ashish Mohta tells us about 6 useful extensions for the Flock Browser
• Shankar provides a solution to prevent Yahoo! Messenger from auto-starting with Windows
• With spyware almost everywhere, Nirmal tells us about 7 free Anti Spyware tools to protect your PC
• RamKarthik shares with us 3 tips to get sponsors for your blog
• Rishi tells us how to create a simple ad rotator script for your site
• Keith talks about how to access your Firefox tabs as a menu
• Daniel tells us why editing is as important as writing a post
• And finally, Shivaranjan tells us how to clear recent documents automatically with Windows