People Search Methods Are Becoming More Sophisticated

Once upon a time, not too many years ago, if you wanted to find a person, the best lookup option that was available to you was a broad web investigation that you could conduct with the help of a search engine. Nowadays, things are different and far more sophisticated. Since it became clear that online users enjoyed the convenience of being able to search for people on the net, other people finder services were developed.

Thus, instead of only having a general search engine to rely on, now there are different services that are solely designed to focus on finding people. These services do not return irrelevant results, which is common when using a standard web search.

The following are the more sophisticated services you can use to track down a person of interest:

Forward search - You lookup a person's first and last name to find out their corresponding phone number and address. This particular lookup only works on people who have listed landline numbers. You cannot learn a person's cell phone or private number with this service because it is considered an invasion of privacy and against the law due to many issues, including cost.

Reverse phone lookup - This particular trace is designed to provide you with the name and location details of a phone consumer by using their telephone number as the main search tool. Essentially, you enter the 10-digits into the query box and then you are provided results. This service is free for landline numbers, but to find out identification information for private and wireless numbers, a paid directory is required.

Public record and genealogy searches - You can find out about someone's background and other personal information including their previous addresses, birth date, date of death, criminal records, marriage license, divorce decree, etc. This type of people finder service comes in handy for those wishing to lookup information on long lost relatives or friends, deceased family members, and on anyone with whom a person has trust issues.

Social networking sites - Websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut, LinkedIn, etc. are social networks that have millions of users. They are free to join, and there is a good chance someone you are looking for has created a personal profile on one of these sites. These networks provide visitors and their members the chance to conduct different searches to find out if the individual they are hoping to find is part of their association.

People search engines - Places such as Pipl, Spock and Wink are actual search engines that only return web results related to the name you lookup.

Keep in mind, while there are many sophisticated people finder services on the net, you can only find out who owns a phone number with the help of a reverse phone lookup or search engine.

Susan is a part-time writer and long-time personal fitness trainer with a knack for tech gadgets. You can check out her latest techie project--a tool to find out who owns a cell phone number--at http://www.SearchAnyNumber.com

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