The detective in me loves to find data on individuals I need to research for recruiting purposes. Nothing makes me say “Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner” more than finding an email or mobile number for that perfect lead. I have many tools I used daily in my “bag o’tool tricks,” and one of them is Pipl.
Pipl’s standard tool “Pipl Search PRO, is a “one-stop shop” people search engine which allows you to find work and social information on individuals. Check out what kind of data you can discover on individuals:
There are two versions of Pipl, one is a free version for the budget conscious user (meant for personal use), and the other is a paid version for business users such as those in the recruiting industry.
Benefits of Pipl – Data Sources
What I believe makes Pipl great is that it has over a million various data sources to gather information from when you run search queries. Pipl searches the “deep web” with a proprietary algorithm that creates profiles based on personal identifiers to help users locate an individual.
Another benefit is that Pipl pulls content from profiles and directories, including Amazon, publications, public records, web pages and news items. On their website, you can see a sampling of 200+ top data sources. To see what other data sources they pull from they have a list on their site: https://docs.pipl.com/docs/data-sources
Searching for those perfect leads via API demo
What got me hooked on Pipl was the API demo I stumbled across https://pipl.com/api/demo
Pipl’s People Data API allows you to utilize the data you have gathered on a lead, including name, address, age, email or phone to create a lead profile based on everything Pipl has found on the internet and in their cache. For my example, I am using someone who claims to be a rocket scientist in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (name hidden for privacy reasons).
I chose the try it button and results came back with potential information.
Even better was a potential phone I found! Could this be the phone for the lead? Yes, it was!
Though just a demo, I still found it informative enough to discuss with my CEO the potential of purchasing the tool for use.
Free but informative Pipl Search Engine
Let’s say I need to find a staff accountant in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a role I have to fill. Using LinkedIn, I make a list of potentials leads. I then enter the individuals LinkedIn URL into the search engine field to see what results I may gather.
My results pulled up the individual I was looking for but with insufficient information, because I was using the free version. I can see that this was from Facebook by noting the icon for the social media site in the lower right-hand corner. My results told me what the individual’s career information was, education, additional names, places she is or has lived in and associated with.
Scrolling down further in the results I can see various social media results, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and more. I love the fact you can select any of the social media links, and it takes you to the site where they are located.
Now, if I had the paid version, I could enter a leads LinkedIn URL and get a much more enhanced return. You can see in the results the leads career information, education, additional names used and phone numbers. Additionally, with the paid version you can see on the left-hand side the “professional tools” with advanced search and print results available.
Detailed information can be printed for future use with the print results option, such as below:
Data, including contact, social, demographic and professional information can be found in many ways and the methods used to discover it is always evolving. The internet, and sites such as Pipl, has made information about leads much more accessible to gather because leads leave footprints. Using Pipl can increase your ability to find the right lead for your position quickly.
