As our lives get busier than ever, it can be easy to drift apart and eventually lose touch with people we were close to. However, in the Internet age, rekindling old friendships has also become easier than ever.
There are many reasons to reconnect with your old friend. You might want to see how they’re doing and catch up or contact them regarding a networking opportunity. The good news is –you can find just about anyone online these days – read on to learn how to do it.
Background Check Companies
Start by taking any information about your old friend, such as their phone number, old address, email address, or social media information, and entering it on a background check site. Such services go through public records to fetch even more details. The more information you have, the easier it will be to get in touch with the person you are looking for. For instance, a people search at CheckPeople.com can retrieve this information for you.
Email addresses, phone numbers, name variations, aliases, and physical addresses are among the basic details you need to find someone online. For example, running a reverse search of their old email might yield their current one. Even if you doubt your information is current, you should try it anyway. You never know what information the system might access.
Reverse Phone Lookup using Google
Another way to get more information is by looking up their phone number using Google. The results of your search might show whether it’s still registered to them. Alternatively, you could get their social media or email this way. Moreover, you can run a Google search using their full name and birthplace, or the city where they last lived. You can use other search engines too, such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo.
YouTube is also worth a shot. You can type in your old friend’s name and birthplace or where they last lived. Moreover, you should add details about previous jobs or any schools they attended. While this might not lead directly to them, you may find people who may be in touch with the person you are searching for.
Metacrawler White is a site that combines a search of the white pages, the yellow pages, and Google. However, it will only work if you know their current location. Using this site, you might find their current address and phone number.
School and Workplace Information
Use any details surrounding where you met them – work, school, a sports team, in your search. If you remember what your friend did for a living, you can do a search of their profession or job, along with their name. You can also try to reconnect through their ex-partner, relative, or mutual friend. Don’t leave any stone unturned. Information about their current marital status can help in your search, too.
Public Directories
BRBpub is a free, highly recommended resource for searching public directories. It lets you narrow down your search for your lost friend, beginning with this person’s last location. In addition, you can link a college or school they had attended, a company they worked for, and any other organization they were connected with.
If you decide to use a background check service, you should make sure to choose a high-quality one. The right provider will create a useful report based on the details you remember about your friend. In addition, some services will even provide this information for free.
The More You Know
The more you can remember about your long-lost friend, the higher your chances of finding them. Perhaps, looking for them struggle because so much time has passed since you’ve been in contact. There are other ways in which you can get their contact information. Specifically, you can ask people who knew them, even if you haven’t talked to them in a while. Persistence will pay off in your search.