Looking for people online is like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Given the way technology has advanced, it’s amazing how the hundreds of sites that call themselves ‘people finders’ still manage not to find anyone quickly and efficiently. If they do, the results are not what we expected or are totally irrelevant.
One fact that could be taken into consideration here is that maybe we are putting one step wrong somewhere. It’s quite possible that it is that one step that makes the whole search go awry and slows down the entire process. Be that as it may, let’s have a look at what we can do so that we get results to our satisfaction, quickly and efficiently. It’s so pointless spending ages when there could be ways to get the search done quicker.
One simple way is to use a free reverse cell phone directory. Of course, to do this you will need a cell phone number of the person you are searching for. If this doesn’t work, move on to the next tactic.
Search engines are among the most powerful tools used to search for anything online. They get used for everything, ranging from lyrics for songs, to news, views and ideas, recipes, videos, research and travel information and anything else you can think of. For most, all search engines start with either Google or Yahoo. And probably end there too. These search engines are very useful when you want to find people online. The only drawback is that you get broad details and not anything very specific.
For example, try and Google a name like ‘John Smith’ and stare at about 200 million results. The odds that the person you want is in the first 30 are slim to none and you really can’t go through 200 million results. This, therefore, is a time wasting option. Let’s try and then narrow the search criteria. Start with using quotation marks. Enclosed within quotation marks “John Smith” now gets about a million results… which is better than 200 million, right?
Next try and add the location if you have some idea about his whereabouts. So now your search says name plus location, which will bring your search down by another half a million or more. Have you ever considered using the search engine option properly? Yes, you may well ask what that is. Invariably we tend not to use it to its best advantage. Have a look at the advanced search option listed on the page. This will help you more than the general search option. Then there are search tips links which you can use to further narrow down the results. Try other search engines as well. With a little bit of persistence and trying to narrow down your search rather than broaden it, you are sure to get the answers to what you are seeking.