Moreover, "search engines" are inconsistent. One will instantly cough up target person #1. Fabulous! You've found the perfect tool. Then you try for person #2. Nothing. Damn! Then you go to the next resource. Person #2 in a breeze. The perfect tool! But being a good scientist, you try for person #1 on this new paragon. Nothing. And so on. And so on!
Frustrating, yes. But utterly wonderful that you've found your two people. Who cares that you had to go to two places. The people who already know and enthusiastically respect the quality of your work are worth their weight in gold when you're job-changing.
These search engines/directories are among the most popular general content ones (add .com, of course, to each): Google, Yahoo, Overture, Lycos, AltaVista, HotBot, WebCrawler. Others are more specialized in finding people, and each of those sites has lots of additional services. Try: Infospace.com, SuperPages.com, People.Yahoo.com, SwitchBoard.com, 411Locate.com, WhoWhere.Lycos.com. More than enough. Yet, there are many more.
When just sifting phone numbers-white and yellow page - these sites will yield reasonably similar answers. But they'll vary widely in answering your other queries, as you'll undoubtedly see when you try an advanced strategy:
Search the Web for a Name Then Narrow by searching for a Name Plus a Clue
Okay, "Sherlock." Let's say you've struck out with phone listing and e-mail address searches. Now we'll use the search engines/directories listed above and forget about the simple "people-finding" sites. Google is my favorite search engine and very possibly yours too. Like most, it has its own proprietary set of "advanced search" features you should try, including an ability to limit the pages found according to how recently they appeared...a handy feature, when you're sleuthing.
But let's just do the basic search. If you're lucky, the person you seek will have a distinctive first or last name. Is she Takishia Radicchio-Questria? If so, nothing but the lettuce sandwiched in the center is generic. Just put in her first and last names and you'll probably find any page that mentions her.
These sites give you a choice of how they'll match your words: "any," "and," and usually also "as a phrase." With Takishia Questria, you're probably best off choosing "any." That way, if you've got either name spelled right you're likely to find whatever's available on her. Had you chosen "and," your search would have failed if you misspelled first or last name. Of course, when doubtful about spelling you'd also play the asterisk "wild card" game.
But now let's suppose you're looking for David Jones. Choose "as a phrase," because lots of pages will have both of those words in them and you want to be sure that they're coupled together.
Now, however, you're probably getting far too many references. Here's a screening trick to try. Put quote marks around the name. That will cause most search engines to search for the words as a phrase while still leaving you free to ask for an "and" search. Put the multi-word name in quotes and also add to the search another word that's a clue as to which of the many David Joneses is the right one. Choose a word that characterizes a field in which David might be prominent enough to be mentioned...perhaps his industry, profession, civic involvement, interest or hobby. For example, maybe he's active in parachuting. He might have been elected an officer of a club or perhaps he's just listed as a member on a published roster. You get the idea. With a reasonable amount of luck, the concept really does work!
Meta Search Engines
They'd like to be masters of the search engine universe. But... You may have been just as pleasantly surprised a few years ago as I was to learn that there are sites designed to submit your query to several major search engines simultaneously and-in the same time it takes to do one search on a single engine-to get the results of, for example, 11 searches done on 11 engines simultaneously.
That's a great concept and a great help when it works as promised... especially when you're looking for a needle-in-hay as we've just discussed.
On the next page are a number of Meta Search Engines to try. I wish I could assure you that they always do what you expect them to. However, I've encountered various difficulties with various ones at various times.
For example, in preparing to write this section, I tested one I've long considered fairly reliable. It claimed to submit my query to 8 search engines, including AltaVista. When it reported results, it informed me that there were no results from AltaVista. Interesting! Moments before I had queried AltaVista directly and received over 200 relevant references.
I won't incriminate the culprit, because I'll be trying it again and look forward to getting valuable help from it in the future as in the past. The point is that Meta Search Engines do expand the scope of your inquiry. But be sure to keep them honest by also posing your question directly to some of your favorite search engines, including Google and Yahoo!
There are several Meta Search Engines to try and some are mentioned in this article. All have proprietary features and several have links to additional types of searches that you can pay for. Sometimes the same sort of search is done free on one site and charged for one another.
