Finding out who someone is online
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stianeikeland/3696386615
Looking for an old classmate? Interviewing a potential candidate? Finding people online takes practice and perseverance.
I strongly suggest you write down or save the results of the following steps. You’ll need to copy and paste different combinations in later steps and it’ll make it easier. I suggest Evernote if you haven’t tried it. Come back to these questions and fill them in as you find out more about the person.
What do you already know about the person?
- How do they spell or abbreviate their names? Do they usually write Tim Ferriss or Timothy Ferriss?
- Do they have any aliases? nicknames?
- Email address?
- What usernames do they use online?
- Do they have a maiden name?
- Do you know their social security number?
- Where have they lived? Do you at least know a few states to narrow it down? Do you have exact addresses?
- When were they born?
- Where were they born?
- Who do they know?
- Are they married/do they have children? If so collect the same information about the spouse and children.
- Do they have kids?
How popular is their name?
You have to be more specific in your search when it’s a common name or someone well known has the same name.
What am I looking for?
Try to fill in the questions above. Jot down each answer.
Start Looking
Follow these steps in order but be sure to move back as you find more information about the person. Searching on the info you find at later points can be key.
Zabba Search
This is a good place to start. They try to sell you on most of the links or addition info but you can find addresses and phone numbers. Knowing where they live or have lived is key here. I’ve never tried any of the pay services they offer. They seem to be affiliated with intelius.com.
Pipl
Another good place to start. Searches many social networks.
Wink.com
Another social networking search. Surprisingly accurate.
Google is your friend. Accurate searching is a life skill you should master. Narrowing down your search is key here especially if you are searching on a common name. Look for leads into other sites. Look for social networking profiles. Blog posts or comments. News articles. Birth announcements.
- Start with the name combinations you wrote down above in quotes: “Tim Ferris”.
- Try combinations without quotes. Include the state. Include the city and state. Try different combinations.
- You can use other advanced google operators to narrow down your search.
Use the – sign to remove keywords from the search. If you are looking for a Tim Ferris that isn’t the author try: Tim Ferris -author. Be careful not to remove a word that is common like Facebook. - Search for their email address.
- Search for known usernames. Try the first part of their email address.
Facebook has become the most popular social networking site. Try using the friend finder and narrowing your query down to location or school etc. Keep in mind that some people enter false data. It takes patience to sort through all the results. Try looking for known acquaintances of the person and see if you can spot the person you’re looking for in their friends list. Since Facebook’s privacy changes many people have public information waiting to be found.
Myspace
While it’s not as popular as it once was many people still have Myspace accounts.
A business social network. Many professionals use this for networking. If you know where the person works or worked you may have some luck here. You need a profile to get more than basic information.
YouTube
Almost everyone uses YouTube. They require an account to watch certain videos so many people register. Try pseudonyms or known usernames.
Forums
These usually show up in the search results on a Google search but when you do find posts you can learn a lot about a person by what they say.
Other Social Networking sites
- Digg
- StumbleUpon
Funny Facebook profile pictures
During my daily time wasting session on reddit I stumbled across a couple of threads on amusing Facebook profile images. The first thread was about creating a Facebook profile image that used a transparent image with a background that matched the site. The second thread included the ever popular pedobear. Both threads have some great examples of how people use the Facebook background image to get some pretty funny results.
Creating transparent popout Facebook profile pics
There are a couple of tutorials out there for creating your own profile pics. I haven’t tried to use a transparent png but I’m guessing it would work.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Popup_Facebook_Picture/
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-profile-photo-hacks/
Pre-Made images and Facebook templates
Reddit user TheBlasto offered some great silhouettes. I’ve included a few below but check out his picasa gallery for more.
