Updated: Intelius has purchased people search engine Spock. Financial terms of the deal, which was first reported by VentureBeat Thursday, were not disclosed, although Intelius co-founder Ed Petersen said in an interview that it was “hotly contested.” Spock has raised $8 million in two rounds of venture financing, but it’s in a crowded space. Even Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has entered the people search market with its introduction last week of profile results on the first page of some name queries.

The purchase of Spock will give Intelius an entry into the search market for unstructured data since Spock pulls its results from social networking sites and blog posts. By contrast, Intelius specializes in providing people search results and background checks based on data from public records. Spock’s model is partly advertiser supported, with basic information like job titles and some photos available for free and more comprehensive results available for $19.95, while Intelius charges for all of its results. Petersen said that details about how the two companies would be integrated had not been settled yet, although Intelius will continue to operate the Spock website independently, adding that “there is room on the site to promote Intelius offerings.”

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