More privacy stuff you need to know

The pluses & minuses of transparency …

A number of new websites are on the bleeding edge of content and information retrieval, with implications for the real estate industry.

So we thought we would introduce you to a couple so you have an idea of what's out there.

OpenBook is one of these newer sites that searches all Facebook comments for a match – some of the more popular searches have been somewhat XX rated so please tread lightly (the site just removed the tag cloud of the more popular ones under the search box ) – however …

You will recall that the consumer will be increasingly inclined to ask their friends for recommendations.

… here are the results of a search for "sell my house" realtor which actually might be a good way to find new business. Click the image if you cannot read the text.

PhoneLookUp is a site that has a reverse phone lookup.

Pretty good results with both landline and cell phone numbers.

I tried it a couple of times and it proved to be about 80% accurate.

The site also has a white pages look up which was pretty spot on actually. This has potential for verifying out of towners to make sure they are who they say they are. The downside of course, is anyone out there in cyberspace could be searching your name too.

The screenshot is of someone I know, complete with street address and phone number.

What do you think – are these sorts of sites going too far?

Do you know of any sites that might be of interest to other readers? Please share!

Oh, and keep clicking that like button too! Thanks …