Every day, people all over the world lose touch with each other. You’ve probably found yourself thinking about an old acquaintance and want to reconnect. However, when you give them a call, all you get is an annoyed voice saying “that person doesn’t live here anymore.” What can you do? Well, in the age of the Internet, there are a variety of options open to you that are much cheaper than hiring a private investigator. You can even try tracing a cell phone number to the owner.
Many of them are even free. People often Google themselves in order to see what impact they have had upon the Internet, and how well-known they are. This so-called “Ego-Google” can also be a great way to trace someone else and find contact information. Failing that, the search engine Yahoo has a specially designed people search. Given Yahoo’s popularity, your chances of finding a person this way are very real.
A phone number is a good thing to start with, so if you have one, use it. Since people usually search with a name to get a number, using the number to get a name is called a reverse phone search or reverse look-up. Other types of reverse searches use personal information such as addresses or email accounts.
If a Google search doesn’t do the trick, then a wide range of friend-finder websites exist for this exact purpose. Two of the more popular sites are www.anywho.com and www.infospace.com. Using any information in your possession, you can perform detailed reverse look-ups and see the results in seconds.
If all of that searching comes up with nada, then head over to www.classmates.com or www.reunion.com. These popular websites are a great way for former schoolmates to reconnect, and were among the first of their kind. Classmates is particularly popular. If your friend was a military buddy rather than a school chum, www.militaryconnections.com is a specialized website that deals exclusively with the armed forces. For a wide variety of search specialties, www.who-remembers-me.com offers a range of options from places of worship to orphanages.
So if you’ve got the urge to contact a long-lost friend, take heart in knowing that there are tons of free and easy to use tools on the Internet. In the information age, you don’t need a detective to find someone. Today, there are almost as many ways to find friends as there are to make them!
