Search Engines vs People Finders
Okay so you want to find a person free online? – a missing relative, an old school friend or a colleague who lives halfway across the world but you are not exactly sure where. You probably have read about people finders i.e. how helpful they can be in helping you find the person you are looking for. And on the other hand you know about search engines that can find just about anything on the web.
Now let me provide some insights into these finder tools. I will present a few points about what sets them apart from the other so you can make an informed decision as you choose either or.
General search engines have the people finder capability but most people are not sure about how they are used in order to present such information. For example, There are three Google search operators that you can use to search for contacts i.e. bphonebook: for business, rphonebook: for residential listings and phonebook: used to search all phone listings. This is made possible by the large phone book that Google has.
With that said, let me point out that there are obviously some limitations to search engines in terms of people finder capabilities in comparison with the actual people finders.
People finders are specifically developed to find people online. These have large databases or indexes on people’s identities – depending on which one it is some reach the whole world and some are regional but nevertheless deliver within the market in which they are focused on. These provide different types of information for United States citizens, including addresses (both current and past), phone numbers, birth years, and more.
Most people finders provide you with the exact information you want from its database and unlike search engines; they do not provide hundreds of thousands of options in their results pages.
I should mention that there are two types of people finders i.e. paid and non-paid or rather those that help you find people free online. Some will charge you for searching through their database and some will provide free access. Usually the ones that charge you gather data from the individuals themselves and update frequently whereas the free services simply use publicly available information to put together an index or database.
It is a well known fact that some free people finders are surrounded by privacy issues for example, Zabasearch, but the truth is they really do work. I can only advise that while you are searching for people’s personal details keep in mind that they their privacy is protected by law – specifically The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
So you need to use websites and tools that do not necessarily invade people’s privacy but still provide the kind of information you are looking for. That is, still helps you in finding a person online.
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