Online searches for individuals will continue to increase in 2009, though people search leader yasni believes that consolidation and diversification may be in store for this market.
New York (December 18, 2008) — Online searches for individuals currently account for more than 30 percent of all searches done on the Web, and according to yasni – the world’s top-ranked people search engine – that number will continue to increase in 2009. The growing interest in locating specific information about other people has led Internet users to adopt usage of “people search” tools, i.e., specialized search engines customized to track down public information about individuals, a trend that yasni expects will continue.
“Data protection and privacy issues worldwide have caused people to have a heightened awareness of their personal information that is accessible by others,” said Steffen Ruehl, CEO and founder of yasni. “Because of this, we’re seeing greater instances of people using yasni to find out what information can be found about them online, and manage their online reputation from one convenient resource.”
“Besides the management of one’s own online reputation, we’re seeing higher usage in very specific applications,” Ruehl continued. “It’s become common practice for HR managers to turn to yasni as a way to uncover information about job applicants, and parents – rightfully concerned about their children’s online activities on social media applications and other web sites – have found a useful tool in yasni. As everyday news stories demonstrate how the Internet can be used to threaten reputations and even safety, we anticipate greater reliance on people search tools such as yasni.”
yasni expects that the needs of increasingly savvy Web users will cause them to rely less on traditional search engines and veer toward specialized, niche tools that offer the highest-quality results. “In many cases, people are using the big search engines as a starting point, and then locating a niche search tool that helps them dig deeper for better results,” Ruehl explained. “This was the initial means of discovery for many price comparison engines that later became a first-visit destination for consumers.”
Increased interest in people search has caused the space to grow rapidly with a number of players in tow, however a different landscape may emerge in the next year. yasni does not expect new competitors to enter the market and further believes that consolidation and diversification may be in store. “Some people search engines will try to consolidate, as we’ve already begun to see,” said Ruehl. “We also expect that several of the existing people search engines will change their business model to try and become profitable. Ultimately we feel that the people search space will narrow down to the two or three services that best meet consumers’ needs.”
The European version of yasni receives more than 24 million page views per month, making it the category leader in people search. A U.S. version was recently launched at www.yasni.com. For more information about yasni.com or to schedule an interview with yasni CEO and founder Steffen Ruehl, please contact John Angelo at john@abelsongroup.com or 623-792-8239.
