I have a confession to make. I lied when I said that you can locate someone online without a problem. Well, sort of.
Why a ‘problem’ is not really a problem
You see, you are bound to have ‘problems’ while trying to find and filter out the relevant information about a specific person. Now, you can choose to either see those obstacles as:
- Problems
- Opportunities
Remember, while searching, you’re taking action! With every step you take, you are closer to locating the person you want to locate! No matter whether the information you find is good or bad. You’re making progress. You are creating opportunities. I can’t emphasize how important this is.
So, the only way to locate someone online without a problem is to actually realize there will be problems on the way. Keep going and accept that’s part of the process. And realize that those ‘problems’ may be actually new opportunities that’s getting you closer to locating that ‘someone.’
Now when we tackled the ‘why’ of things let’s go to the ‘how to’ part.
How to locate someone online without (or with minimal) problems
I’ve been searching for a ‘perfect solution’ to achieving this goal for ages and I found some clues that can make the process way easier.
1. Start with the most data-rich people search engines
What is a data-rich people search engine? In simple terms, it is an engine where you type, let’s say the name, approximate age and location of the person you’re looking for and it returns the richest set of information about that specific person (date of birth, current address and telephone and so on.) Who doesn’t want this?
Fortunately, there are engines of this type online! They are either:
- Free, ZabaSearch, Pipl
- Paid (but cheap), US Search, Intelius
If you start with the free ones like ZabaSearch, search for the person and you’re sure it is him, then go to less data-rich engines like WhitePages where you might get even more information! Now when you know more details about that person, it’s way easier to find even more data.
Example
Let’s say I’m searching for Mike Jonson who lives in Arizona and is around 50 years old. I can go to ZabaSearch and type the name and the state. I can then look whether there’s a person who fits my criteria. Bingo! I found someone who is 50 years old and that looks to be the Mike I’m searching for! I now have the address and the phone! But when I try to call that number, it says it doesn’t exist.
What can I do now? Well, I can go to WhitePages.com and type the name and the address and see whether I can find an updated phone number. Some [out of the box] approaches I can try also is to do reverse address search to see who lives on that address and then use that information for getting in contact with those people who might help me find out more about Mike.
You see how powerful this can be. Go and start searching!
