WASHINGTON: 123people.com, a free search engine which scours the Internet and gathers and displays information about people, has expanded to the United States.

"After months of private beta tweaking and adding new features to improve the high powered people search, 123 People launches to the US public," the European-based website announced in a blog posting at 123people.com.

123 People collects publicly available information about people from social network profiles, blog entries, news articles and other sources and displays links, pictures, videos, email addresses and phone numbers.

The first and last name of the person the user is seeking information about is entered into a search box on the 123people.com home page. The results are displayed on a single web page. 123 People, which previously only operated in Europe, is the latest people search engine to hit the US market and joins the ranks of such startups as pipl.com, wink.com, spock.com, peekyou.com and yoname.com.