The People Search Meme Grows: Plink

<a href="http://battellemedia.com/images/plink2.gif" onclick="window.open('http://battellemedia.com/Via Jeff Jarvis today I came across Plink, an experimental “people link” search engine built on the “Friends Typelist” and/or blogrolls of Moveable Type users. It is explained by Anil Dash in the Six Apart blog here. This is a neat implementation of search based on FOAF ideas. Basically, Plink (cool name) lets you search for people you know, and then see who they know, and who knows them. To be included, you have to create a FOAF file, which I have not done, and honestly, am not sure I want to deal with. Those that have, however, are pointing the way for applications that eventually will do it automatically. Might this auger the future of Friendster or LinkedIn, where the intelligence and relationships built into those closed networks become part of the open platform of the Net?