Finding someone online can be tough or easy, depending on how you approach it. Some people will get millions of friends or followers online, while others will only have a handful. Generally, it is very easy to trace someone online nowadays. However, your approach to finding a person will determine your luck.
When looking for someone online, you can utilize paid-for and free sites. Again, there are websites where you can search for someone for free on specific metrics while you must subscribe for advanced services. The choice of which site to use is totally yours. However, remember there will be advantages and disadvantages to your preference. You want to maximize your opportunities to find someone, so choose wisely.
Why People Prefer Searching for Someone Online
If you have ever tried to trace someone who proves hard to get, you will probably concur that searching for them online is better than the alternatives. Here are some reasons why finding a person online is always a preferred choice for many people.
- It is fast: Speed is critical when you are looking for someone. Nobody wants to take days or months searching for a person. With an online search, it is just a matter of seconds or minutes, and you have your results.
- It is cheap: Unlike traveling from one place to another or making posters to find someone. Online search costs you little money or nothing.
- Less hassle: Looking for someone comes with some struggles, but you can bet an online search is less stressful than other alternatives. For example, you don’t have to sift numerous book pages to get results.
7 Effective Ways to Search for People Online
There are numerous ways to find people online. Whatever online search method you choose depends on the information you have on someone, access to a platform or website, preference, etc. Here are the top ways to find people online
1. Have Some Information About Them
If you hope to find someone online successfully, start with either finding their name, email, or mobile phone number. Any online search will require at least one of those three. For the name, it could also mean a nickname for some sites, such as social media.
2. Join a Reverse Phone Lookup Site
Reverse phone lookup websites are mainly helpful when it comes to the identification of unknown callers. Sometimes, people ring you with unfamiliar numbers, and you may feel jitters picking up or returning the call until you can establish the caller’s identity. Being on PhoneHistory could quickly resolve this problem for you. All you need to do is go to the website, enter the unfamiliar number, and click search.
3. Social Media Platforms
Social media websites or platforms are among the best places to trace someone online. Nowadays, it is common for people to provide their locations on their social media handles. Besides that, people have also adopted the culture of posting their residences or places of work on social media platforms. You can effortlessly search for a person with just a name, phone number, email, or other information, such as place of work or school.
4. Reverse Image Search
Currently, technology has increasingly changed the way we live and interact. If you have an image of someone you are looking for online, it is possible to Google reverse image search it to establish where the picture was taken.
This technique is highly effective, especially when your photo has an identifiable item such as a landmark, building, logo, etc. All the person searching on Google reverse image search must do is go to Google Images, upload the picture, and click search.
5. Do a Google Search
This is also another way to conduct an online search on anybody. That is because all you need to do is open the Google Search page, type the name, phone number, nickname, address, or other crucial data touching on the person you are looking for, and click the ‘search’ button. When searching, put the name, phrase, or address in quotation marks.
6. Public Records
Another way to find someone online could be through an online public records platform. You could find several things on such sites about an individual, including where they work or live. By keying in a name, identification number, social security number, or driver’s license number, you can quickly get information about the current or the last location that somebody stayed. Some of the most notable public records you could use are:
- County and state departments that are mandated to issue and maintain death, birth, marriage, and divorce certificates
- Online county or state public record repositories
- National archives for military service records
- Online criminal and civil records
7. Set Up a Google Alert
Putting up a Google alert has longevity, unlike other techniques mentioned above. This is because with Google Alert, any time the name of the person you are looking for appears in the news, a notification is sent to you. That means you could find contact information or location on an individual long after you activated your Google Alert.
Setting up a Google alert is fast; having a Gmail or a Google account makes it easier. Here are easy steps to setting up a Google alert. This won’t take you long, but only a few minutes.
- Step 1: Go to your web browser, enter alerts.gogle.com on the navigation bar, and click search. Sign in to your Google account.
- Step 2: Type the name of the person you want to monitor.
- Step 3: Click “Show Options” to expand the drop-down. Optimize your search alert.
- Step 4: By clicking the’ How Often’ drop-down, define how often you want Google alerts sent. It could be through email or other choices of your preference.
- Step 5: Move to other drop-downs to select sources, language, region, how many, and where you want it delivered.
- Step 6: Click the ‘Create Alert’ button.
- Step 7: Click the ‘settings’ tab next to ‘My Alerts’ to customize your alerts further.