Using Free People Search On the Web

So you're looking for somebody you know on the internet.  Do they have a web page, do then have a blog, or maybe you're just looking for their address.  Here's some quick starting points.

Phone number search:

• WhitePages.com: Search by both first and last names to find a phone number.
• Anywho.com: find a business or person via phone number.
• Google Phone Number Search: You can use Google to find both business and residential phone numbers on the Web.  Just enter a search like:  "John Smith, Chicago IL" and if they've got a phone number it'll show up .

Web People Search:

• Wink: Wink is a free people search engine that searches across what you would find using a regular search engine as well as across social communities, online profiles, etc.
• Spock: can find much more than a traditional search engine. In addition to web links, we extract information like pictures, relationships, and even news about individuals.
• ZoomInfo:  Find information on industries, companies, people, products, services and jobs.

Public Records Search:

• Intelius:  Background checks, phone looks and property record checks.
• People Finders: Not as expensive as Intelius still has background checks, phone looks and property record checks.

Social Network Search:

Anybody who has a social network account can usually be found using the networks search feature, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace all have search.  But, of course you'll only be searching their information.

Getting out of a search:

Every social network has a way to be "private", so little to no information about you shows up in a search result.  Most of the public records search and free people searches all have processes by which you can be removed.  But, remember since they're based on public information -- if it gathered through a web crawl, or from the phone book -- it's really up to you to manage and attend to the details.