Filtering Search Results
Put a name in quotation marks to filter the results. Search the person's first name and last name as a single search term within double quotation marks: e.g. "John Smith". If the name is a somewhat common one, many irrelevant results will show up. To filter these results, try including a middle initial or middle name with your original search: "John A. Smith" or "John Andrew Smith".
Include details. If you're Googling someone, you likely know something about him/her besides the name. Perhaps you know the name of the company the person works for. Perhaps you know names of family members. Perhaps you know activities or hobbies, schools or churches. Most often, you will know their general geographic location (city/state). Think of where you met the person or how you know the person, and include one or two of these elements in your search. For example, you met John Smith on an elevator in ABC Corporate Building. You would Google "John Smith" and "ABC" in the same search bar. Or perhaps John Smith's boy Greg plays soccer for nearby Allentown High. Google "Greg Smith" "soccer" or "Greg Smith" "Allentown" to find information about Greg.
Try to search for a person's online pseudonym. The other way to strike gold is to find the person's online pseudonym and Google that. Pseudonyms might include nicknames, screen-names, pen-names, business names, or known aliases. This can often pull up more information than Googling the person's name. Of course, this approach doesn't work if the person has created a separate pseudonym for each site or account. Few people are that privacy-savvy, though.
Know that your searching may not be fruitful. There are a few people left who just don't put themselves online. You will Google these people largely in vain. You might find their name mentioned briefly in an article written by a colleague, or you might see their name in a long list of other participants in some community event. Don't discount the information gathered this way – it can still be very helpful. However, it may not be as useful as information that the person posts about himself or herself.
Using "People Search" Websites
Try using sites beyond Google. Google can be great for bringing up someone's searchable information – but it doesn't always get you what you need. The Internet is full of people-searching websites, some of which can even pull up public records. If you need less-public information, such as phone numbers, addresses, marriage and criminal records, you may need to use a more advanced search tool. Beware of sites that ask you to pay. There are free sites and for-profit sites – some of which descend into outright scamming.
Find a "People Search Engine". Simply entering someone's name into Google will likely give you too many results, so there are a number of sites dedicated to People Search. Some work better than others. You can find a listing of people-searching tools at The Search Engine List. Yahoo People Search is another tool to try, although its functionality is very basic. If all else fails, try zabasearch. This will turn up every single phone number, address, and person with a similar name going back decades!
Try using Whitepages.com This site brings up people with names similar to the one you're looking for, sorted by state. Whitepages.com can be both helpful and confounding, as it often contains duplicate results. This can be frustrating when you're trying to pin down which John Smith lives in Allentown – but it can be helpful if you happen to know that John Smith used to live in Indiana and now lives in Pennsylvania. Then, you can use the duplicate records to your advantage. Whitepages.com also often gives names of people closely related to the one being searched. This gives you more keywords to search, more opportunities of finding the information you want.
Using Social Media
Consider tracking someone down on social media. Social media sites are a mixed bag. If you can find the person's social media accounts (and they're not protected), you've struck gold. However, many people do protect their social media accounts, either through privacy settings or through pseudonyms. Finding someone on Facebook is a good place to start. If the person was an adolescent in the early 2000s, see if his/her Xanga or Myspace is still online. Several of these sites have few privacy settings and can provide a wealth of information.
Consider how much energy you want to put into this. Sometimes a manual approach works (e.g. searching Facebook for "John Smith" and scrolling through all 500 results until you find one whose profile picture matches your memory of his face). Often, however, this is more tedious than it's worth.
Follow social media trails. If you are able to find someone's Facebook page, you may be able to find a link to their Instagram, or their Twitter, or their professional portfolio. If you are able to find a tagged photo of a person on someone else's social media page, then you may be able to follow this clue to the person's profile. Look for any information that might be useful: a person's hometown, birthday, past employment, associates, etc.
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