Off Topic - but hopefully people will find this interesting.
FYI - regarding search engines -
sdf
Internet Directories Can Help
You Find a Long-Lost Friend
ONE OF THE THINGS computers do
particularly well is to rapidly search through
mounds of data or listings to locate specific
information.
A great example is the
on-line phone directory.
Lots of people are
interested in finding out
the street addresses,
phone numbers and e-mail addresses of
individuals and businesses around the U.S., and
there are a bunch of Web sites where you can do
that for free. Some even provide maps and driving
directions. Others will display a list of businesses
-- say, Chinese restaurants -- close to any given
address. A couple of others will let you enter a
street address or phone number to locate the
person to whom they belong.
These national directories have long been
available on CD-ROM. But the Internet versions
have a number of advantages. First, they're free,
beyond the $20 a month or whatever fee you pay
for Internet access, plus phone costs. Second,
they are more easily updated by the directory
vendors. Third, you can hop among several
different databases without owning multiple
products. The downside of the on-line versions is
speed. The Internet is usually slower than a
CD-ROM drive, so if you're doing mass searches
for hours at a time, a disk may be better.
Before reviewing some of the best directory sites,
a couple of notes are in order. These sites all
depend on lists compiled by database
companies, which aren't necessarily the same as
the printed phone books.
National directories on the Internet
InfoSpace: infospace.com
Four11: four11.com
Switchboard: switchboard.com
Yahoo!:
yahoo.com
Bigfoot: bigfoot.com
WhoWhere?: whowhere.com
555-1212: 555-1212.com
Database America:
databaseamerica.com
BigBook: bigbook.com
ReuNet: reunion.com
KnowX: knowx.com
1-800-U.S. Search:
1800ussearch.com
THEY CONTAIN errors, omissions and
duplications. It makes sense to check several
sites when doing a search, because answers may
vary. Also, all of these on-line listings raise privacy
issues. The e-mail directories, in particular, are
sometimes gathered by scanning message
boards for addresses without the users'
permission. Some sites let you suppress your
name from appearing in search results.
My overall favorite directory site is InfoSpace,
which gets much of its data from Pro CD, a
company which also publishes CD-ROM
directories. I've had the best luck looking for
people on InfoSpace, and I like its interface. After
you locate a person's name and address on
InfoSpace, you can get a map and driving
directions for the address, a list of nearby
businesses, and general information about their
town. One weakness: The searches for phone
numbers and e-mail addresses aren't well
integrated. Also, some of the driving directions
are pretty bad.
Another good site is Four11, which is the only one
I found that could search by street address. You
can even enter a street address without a name to
find who lives there. Four11 has a very tight
integration between its phone and e-mail
directories. It also has a special celebrity
directory, though this lacks phone numbers and
many of the addresses appear to be offices or
agents, not homes, which is -- thankfully -- bad
news for stalkers.
Switchboard is another strong directory, which
simultaneously checks for phone numbers, street
addresses and e-mail addresses. Yahoo!, the
Internet search company, also has a
people-search function, using the Four11
database. Two other sites, Bigfoot and
WhoWhere?, have phone and street-address
listings, but are primarily geared to looking up
e-mail addresses. WhoWhere? adds the ability to
search the SEC's Edgar database for company
information.
YOU CAN SPEED UP the search process by
using a site called 555-1212. This Web page will
let you simultaneously fill out search forms for
InfoSpace, Four11 and Switchboard, and then
initiate searches on each. It also lets you do a
reverse search based only on a phone number
using the Yahoo! site, or a site called Database
America.
A number of sites specialize in business listings,
calling themselves on-line yellow pages. Of these,
my favorite is BigBook, which is attractive,
well-organized and deep. For even tiny local
shops, you can often find addresses and phone
numbers, maps, driving directions and even
sometimes reviews submitted by readers.
If you can't track down a person on your own, there
are several Web sites which offer to do it for you,
for a fee. One is called ReuNet, the Reunion
Network, which offers paid bulletin boards for
matching up lost family members or friends and
does work for TV talk shows. Its bulletin boards
also contain ads to help find adopted children,
birth parents, and missing or abandoned people.
Another paid site is KnowX, which focuses on
finding whether people have "adverse" public
records, such as judgments, bankruptcies and
liens. KnowX allows free searching on its Web
site, but charges to retrieve the details of any legal
record turned up by your search. A third site,
called 1-800-U.S. Search, offers to find people by
name or Social Security number, or to check
death records. |
