[Austria] Controversial Vienna based people search Startup 123people (Which TechCrunch covered from it’s early days) just released their iPhone App. The App hardly differs from the Web platform regarding the core functionality. The basic idea is to get a static 1-pager of people related information. Starting from phone numbers to blogs and Amazon wishlists (which, by the way, can sometimes be more embarrasing than any Myspace Photo). Users get an overview of the person’s web reputation at a glance – assuming it get’s the right person of course. You can download the app here.
Russell E. Perry, CEO of 123people, says all features of the 123people iPhone app can be accessed and he’s right. Features such as a calling or e-mailing straight out of found results and an extremely tight integration with the iPhones Adress book (“Save to Contacts”) makes it potentially pretty useful.
Competitors like Yasni, Pipl or Spock have not yet developed their own iPhone apps which makes 123people’s app currently the only real solution if you want to “stalk” somebody on the go – though location is one thing 123people haven’t cracked. All we need now is an Augmented Reality version with facial recognition and the nightmare would be complete.
When looking at their Compete data, the Startup is hitting 20 Million Uniques/month, so “people search” is not going away soon.
Disclosure: I used to be on 123people’s early team but have no other affiliation with them.