How To Use The Web To Find A Long Lost Friend Or Relative

Here's the problem: You've got a friend named Jerry that you haven't heard from in more than a decade, or a cousin Sylvia who's been missing in action for even longer. What do you do if you want to reconnect with them but don't have their current addresses or phone numbers? Before you go and hire Philip Marlowe to track them down why not try using one of the many people search services available on the Internet?

People searches or people finders as they're often referred to are simply sites that try to match the name of the person you're searching for against available data from the white pages, public records or other sources. These sites typically offer information on current addresses, phone numbers and even e-mail in some cases.

Here are a few people search sites you can try where basic searches can be conducted for free:

• Yahoo! People Search - People search from Yahoo! offers a free white pages and e-mail search.
• ZabaSearch - A free people search engine whose results include addresses and phone numbers found in U.S. public records.
• Wink - This site takes a different angle on people search-instead of searching the white pages, they help you find people by searching the public profiles posted at online communities like MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.

Give one of these sites a try...reconnecting with that long lost friend or relative might only be a few clicks away!