Occasionally you may be lucky and locate a resume, web page or some other identifying information on someone by simply submitting a search using your target's name on a major Internet search engine. Although the actual success ratio may not be good, some have had success with this simple method and therefore it may be worthy of a few minutes of your time.

Internet People Locators

Numerous free people directories have popped up all over the Internet. Many of these directories have millions of entries including telephone numbers and email addresses. The program provides a large listing of these sources located under the 'Directories' section. As well, many useful people search utilities that access these directories can be found within the same section as well.

Using an Internet directory to find a female friend who has since married can be difficult if you do not know their new married surname. However, quite often one does know a few details about his friend's parents (or bothers and sisters) such as their last name and general address. It may be a much simpler task to locate your friends parents using a general people search engine on the Internet and then once located, give them a call.

Internet Registries

There are many different types of registries including military, university and high school related that have been setup all over the Internet. If you have some information on where your target attended school or other clubs he attended, searching for a related registry may prove fruitful.

The majority of these registry sites provide a database that allows individuals to add messages about themselves. Many of these sites are geared towards a specific group of people (ex: SunnySide High School Grads) and others are more general (ex: Veterans). When visiting a registry, one can usually search using various keywords such as by surname in hopes of finding an entry left by the individual they are searching for.

Newsgroups

The newsgroup soc.net-people has been setup to aid others in locating people. Simply post a message asking for help.

E-Mail Addresses

Many people in search of lost friends or family have compiled lists of e-mail addresses for everyone that matches the surname of the person they are looking for. Once they have completed their list, they simply send each address an e-mail. Quite often such an endeavor will produce positive results. Even if the email does not reach the person you are looking for, it may reach someone who knows them.

We suggest reading "FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses" at http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/bigfinding.html. This site is maintained by David Alex Lamb(copyright© 1994-2001 David Alex Lamb). Mr. Lamb provides a large list of techniques to use in locating an e-mail address.

Other Basic Internet Tools

There are quite a number of other general search tools on the Internet that can aid one in locating people. For other ideas and direct access to these tools, open up the People Wizard located on the menu bar of the program.