I received the following e-mail today:

I frequently visit your website. I like the articles. Recently I have made an easy tool for HR and people to see what in published on the web. The website is www.cvgadget.com. I would like to ask you, if you like the website, if you could write a small article about it or publish the link on your website.

Regards,
Dirk Dijksma

Many bloggers are familiar with similar kinds of messages. Most get deleted (for good reason). However, on a slow Friday in August at least, this one seemed interesting enough to share.

The site enables you to plug in a name and search results across a variety of popular services - from Google to Facebook to ZoomInfo to LinkedIn and more. If the person you’re searching has a common name, like John Smith, it’s more or less worthless. But say that special someone has a funky name like “Cheesman,” and this tool could give you some insight that you might not have found otherwise (or at least not as easily).

On a sidenote, our friends in legal circles tell us this kind of thing should never be used in conducting, say, background checks on people, so, um, don’t use it for that, OK?