Recently my wife's sister got curious about what had happened to her first
husband after they split. That marriage had ended badly and they hadn't been in
contact for nearly thirty years. She tried searching for her ex-husband's name
on Google and Yahoo but didn't get any hits. Knowing I do research online in my
work as a professional writer, she asked if I could find out anything.
I write for business and technical publications, so I use a number of
high-priced databases for in-depth research. But I suggested she try a simpler
alternative - a solution I use myself when I want to find someone quickly and
easily. I recommended she try one of the people search database services. Even
the better ones cost so little, they're practically free. Most offer a trial
period. I gave her the name of one to try.
She was dubious. She's not very comfortable using her computer for much more
than email. Her stab at the search engines had already left her flustered. Now
she was going to have to "sign up for something and learn something completely
new... oh my goodness," was the way she put it.
Yet, later the same day I suggested it, she emailed back excitedly. In just
minutes, she'd found out all kinds of information about her ex. It turned out
that he'd done something of a turnaround after they'd broken up. Their divorce
resulted from fights over his serious drinking problem. After they broke up,
though, he'd eventually gone back to med school, gotten his MD and become an
orthopedic surgeon. He'd even been instrumental in developing some sort of
device used by other surgeons in his field.
Unfortunately, the poor fellow had passed, but at least my sister-in-law found
comfort in knowing that things had worked out for him after all. She remarked
that even though their relationship ended in the worst imaginable way, it had
started from a good point. She said she hadnt really wanted to contact him. She
just wanted to know what had happened to him.
Sometimes all we want is just to satisfy our curiosity about what happened to
someone we've lost track of. Most of us have an old friend or acquaintance we
still wonder about.
A Better Way to Find People
I suspect that's what makes people searching so hot. As many as half a million
times a month, someone searches on Google alone, looking for a way to find a
lost person. Whether it's someone from the past with whom we've lost touch, or
someone we met last weekend and yearn to see again, were always searching for
others.
Unfortunately, most general searches fail. Just like Googling failed for my
sister-in-law. The information is out there, somewhere. But being forced to sift
through so many unrelated results makes it nearly impossible.
That's why I recommended she use a people search service - sometimes they're
called Internet Detective services. They pull all the information spread across
thousands of servers and combine it into people-specific search databases. Then
when you drop in a name or an address or a phone number, whatever bit of
information you have, you get instant gratification. Up pops the latest scoop
about your person.
Thats totally unlike the cold mechanical response a Google or Yahoo gives:
Results 1 - 10 of about 55,100,000 for joe smith. (0.06 seconds)
You can almost hear the search engine yawn.
By the way - most searchers don't know this - search engine results don't
actually extend beyond about a thousand entries. Even when the search engine
results page says they found millions and millions of hits, they don't actually
bother to dig it up and give you access to all of it. They're really just
estimating from their own database tables. Even they know it's a waste of time.
Final Word
Join the millions using the web to track down old friends and new friends. But
make it easier on yourself by using a People Search service rather than a
general search engine. Have fun finding out exactly what did become of your old
friend (or even your old, not-so-friendly ex)
