The rush to people search: Viadeo, ZoomInfo, Yahoo China, Spock…and PeekYou

The rush to people search: Viadeo, ZoomInfo, Yahoo China, Spock…and PeekYou

For years, technology to search for people has been neglected, compared to most parts of the Web. Until now, that is.

A wave of new entrants are making it much easier to find out everything about a person, from their job, to their personalities, their age and even where they live. Forget the privacy implications, the race is on.

LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, had the field to itself a few years ago. Sites like Friendster… Continue Reading

Qihoo raises $25M for new Web 2.0 search engine

Qihoo raises $25M for new Web 2.0 search engine

Qihoo, a fast-growing but controversial Chinese search engine for Web 2.0 content, has raised $25 million more in a second round of venture capital from credible U.S investors.

This is significant because Qihoo has launched a new kind of search engine, dedicated to Web 2.0 content — focused on blogs and forums, for example — that has seen its traffic spike in China. Page views have grown from tens of millions of page views a day,… Continue Reading

China Wars: Zhou fights back, says Alibaba’s Ma is desperate

China Wars: Zhou fights back, says Alibaba’s Ma is desperate

Zhou Hongyi, chairman of Chinese search engine start-up Qihoo, defended himself Sunday against allegations that he may have embezzled from or defrauded Yahoo China before leaving that company last year.

In a phone interview, Zhou (pictured here) responded to VentureBeat’s article on Friday that reported Yahoo China is about to file a lawsuit against him. That article was based on an interview with a source close to Yahoo China familiar with the suit preparations.

Zhou dismissed news… Continue Reading

Yahoo China to file aggressive suit against Qihoo nemesis

Updated

Alibaba, the large Chinese company that owns Yahoo China, is preparing to file another hard-hitting suit against competitor Qihoo and its leader, Zhou Hongyi (pictured above).

Yahoo China has already filed one suit against Qihoo, saying the search engine start-up’s software notifies users that Yahoo’s toolbar is malware and prompts deinstallation, and that it’s hurt Yahoo’s market share.

The coming suit, which VentureBeat learned about early this week, will go much further. It will attempt to take… Continue Reading