Recent interest in People Search sites has created many options, but seldom a success. One such success is Pipl.com - its motto, “The most comprehensive people search on the web.” This holds true thanks to its unique method of using content from Facebook, Amazon, Friendster, etc. via what it refers to as the “Deep Web.” Pipl.com’s Deep Web page defines the term as “a vast repository of underlying content, such as documents in online databases that general-purpose web crawlers cannot reach. The deep web content is estimated at 500 times that of the surface web, yet has remained mostly untapped due to the limitations of traditional search engines.”

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Affinion Security Center (ASC) launched last week a new service that fights identity theft — after it happens. IdentitySecure monitors hacker market places and alerts you if your data comes up for sale.

“While breaches are often unavoidable, IdentitySecure provides the proactive searches, early detection and recovery assistance.”

ASC recognizes that our personal data is often out of our control. While we can do what we can to protect our it, there’s always the chance of it being obtained from a third party, as happened recently when a hard drive containing the personal information of over a million bank customers was sold on eBay.

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Online video content for PC viewing is the fastest growing category of consumer usage, according to a study released yesterday. Driving down usage percentage in peer-to-peer data and Web, e-mail and other data, PC online video is projected to comprise nearly one-third of Internet traffic by 2012. This is not to say that P2P and web usage will dip, but rather that the total traffic will increase, along with video percentage.

The video upsurge is not simply caused by more viewers and the increasing popularity of video Web sites such as Google’s YouTube and NBC and NBC Universal and News Corp’s Hulu. While the number of people watching is increasing, the quality of video is also improving. Simply put, this Internet usage shift is caused by both quantity and quality.

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Upon first look, Ziggs.com appears to be just another social networking site, a knockoff of Facebook or Myspace. But after a closer look, Ziggs services are unique and revolutionary.

With a free account, Ziggs will supply details about who is searching for you on virtually all major search engines. Ziggs immediately emails an alert to you at the moment someone looks you up. Additionally, the Web site provides a map location of where the search was administered, along with the search terms, the IP address and the time of the search.

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Traffic to online trading and online brokerage Web sites increased 30 percent during the week ending September 21 2008. Sites such as Online Trading Category, Fidelity.com and Sharebuilder.com found unique visitor numbers expanding as compared to the weekly average from July through early September, some by over 200 percent.

Blogs using the terms “Wall Street,” “bailout” and “401k” all saw an increase in traffic, primarily the first two terms. The highest performer, “Wall Street” blog volume increased approximately 80 times on September 29, according to a report September 30 from Nielsen Online . The Nielsen Company measures and analyzes online audiences and advertising for their business clients marketing strategies.

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Walking down to the San Francisco’s Powell Station this morning, another protest in front of the Apple Store. This time I had my camera with me.

The protesters are from the Carpenters Union Local 9144. The problem is that Apple Inc. is using Shawmut Design & Construction who is using MTD Drywall to build their new store in Modesto, CA. MTD Drywall Inc. is accused of not paying the area standard wages & benefits already established in that area by carpenters…

On the MUNI this morning, I overheard a guy (I think he built medical buildings) say that he really liked recessions, because they destroy all of his competitors. He’s one of the happy few, I guess. There’s only one of him, but many who will become his competition.

When the first Valley Bubble broke, the Web was still essentially a frontier. In the years since, practices have been set – online buying and banking is the norm, Wikipedia.com and Ask.com answer all our questions, social media brings people together from around the world.

The last few years have been ripe for startups. People now understand the Internet, they know what to do with it, and they are open to new ways of interfacing with it (see: the Twitter craze). As little as two months ago there was a notion that tech was going to go through it untouched. In this short time, that optimism has begun to fade.

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Almost sixty percent of Americans interact with companies on social media sites; 25 percent do this frequently, (defined as more than once per week) according to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study.

93 percent of those surveyed believed that companies should use social media, and 56 percent say they feel more connected with a company via social media.

Interestingly, while studies show that more women than men use social media sites, Cone’s survey indicates that men are twice as likely to interact with companies via social media more than one time per week. “The ease and efficiency of online conversation is likely a draw for men who historically do not seek out the same level of interaction with companies as women,” says Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone.

Other findings from the survey are: 43% believe that companies should use social media for problem solving; 41% for product feedback; 37% for brand activity; and 25% for marketing.

“The news here is that Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media. It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion,” says Hollywood.

As legislators fumble about and point fingers over who is to blame for recent stalls to a $700 billion economic bailout plan, a stringent piracy bill recently passed through the House and Senate like fish in a barrel. The PRO-IP bill, endorsed by the music industry, Hollywood corporations, and manufacturers, now awaits the President’s signature to become law.

The 63-page bill (available here) would tighten the scrutiny on IP pirates. Under the Act, the civil courts are granted more latitude in seizing property. The new standard of seizure would be “any property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part” for copyright offenses. Additionally, the bill adds a Copyright Czar to the President’s cabinet.

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Japan’s SoftBank has released the first mobile phone aimed at stock traders. Produced by Sharp, the SoftBank 920SH YK (picture below) enables real-time portfolio checking and online trading. While other phones offer stock trading options, the YK is designed specifically for it.

What is new with this phone is the Stock Trading Key, a dedicated button that allows one-touch trading. The phone’s screen is also optimized for stock watching. SoftBank has a fold-out horizontal screen fueled by AQUOS (makers of LCD TVs) that makes market watching easier, as the phone when unfolded looks like a tiny PC (or something that Kirk and Adam West would have fought over).

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