With so much of our lives stored in the cloud, there’s a cottage industry sprouting up around helping us search across our personal data. Backupify is getting into the act by launching CloudSight Search, a new service that lets users search for data across cloud-based accounts but also restore them in their original location.
CloudSight, which will launch in private beta, follows the path of start-ups like Greplin, CloudMagic and the recently announced Primadesk. But it adds in Backupify’s experience in backing up and restoring data. CloudSight Search will be available to Backupify users and will be activated after they back-up their data. It will support Facebook, Twitter, Google Apps, Flickr, Picasa, LinkedIn and other services. CloudSight filters results based on keyword, by date, and by the type of service to deliver the most relevant data first.
It’s an interesting idea that goes beyond personal data search functions popularized by Greplin. Newer start-ups are not only looking to help users find their information but do something with it. Primadesk, for example, lets users manage their data from one account so they can get a unified e-mail inbox for all their accounts or drag and drop pictures from one photo service to another. Rob May, co-founder and CEO of Backupify said social search services need to do more than just search now.
“Emerging social search engines are exciting but limited in that they only let you locate information – not restore it if it was deleted or view it if your cloud service is unavailable,” said May. In short, it’s not enough to have search in the cloud, you have to be able to manage and manipulate that data across services whenever you want in this “post-PC era.”
Backupify is also trying to appeal to enterprise customers with CloudSight Search, saying that it will help social media and compliance workers track online customer-facing corporate communications across cloud platforms. Google Apps domain administrators will also be able to use CloudSight Search to search the archives of users, which can help in restoring lost or deleted documents.
Backupify, which currently has 140,000 customers, will be showing off Cloudsight at South By Southwest. To sign up for the private beta, visit here.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
- How to Make Google Matter in Social Media
- Will Games Help Google Figure Out How to Be Social?
- Why Google Should Fear the Social Web
