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Copyright © 1999 Adams Business Media, Inc. Would You Like A Reprint of
this Article? Bird-Doggin' the Internet ™ Finding People By Dr. Steve O'Neil, Micro Mo Electronics, Inc. W ith the spectre of Internet video phones, PC conferencing software and virtual trade shows in the wings, you may be relieved to know that most of the people I met at the National Design Engineering Show this year were there for face-to-face interaction with their peers. The one frustration I encountered was that people were having a hard time finding other people on the Internet. Whether it was an old friend, a professor who had certain now-relevant knowledge, or a co-worker with whom they had completed a particularly satisfying development project, there seemed to be a desire to network with those who provided intellectual stimulation and developmental insights. In an effort to help move toward that end, this month's offering provides an overview of some people-finding resources on the WWW. The object of this exercise is to provide contact information, not to do background searches. There are plenty of fee-based services around if that is what you are into. Given the increasing concern for privacy, much personal information has been removed from the Internet during the past three years -- notably, social security numbers, medical information and the like. Most general information is compiled from online directories and from regional Bell telephone books. Some services go beyond that. One of the best known resources is Switchboard at http://www.switchboard.com. Go here to use their "people search" tool. "Find a Person" does searches by first and last name, city, and state. There are plenty of ads to entertain you while information is loading, as well as links to each person's "neighborhood" that you can click on to learn more about the searchee's local geography, government and retail establishments. The Seeker at http://www.the-seeker.com is another general search tool with which you can search for classmates, relatives, old (or young) co-workers or military veterans. There is also a set of links for searching heirs and beneficiaries, as well as an option to place a message on a message board so others can find you. Be careful about leaving information on sites such as this, or you may get what you don't necessarily wish for. I usually test services such as this by opening a free e-mail account and then seeing what pops up in the weeks to come. Big Foot at http://www.bigfoot.com and Yahoo! People Search at http://people.yahoo.com provide similar ser- vices. Another well-known people searcher is Infospace at http://www.infospaceinc.com. Use it to link to yellow and white pages, public records and government resources. The government links are especially good. You can find federal, state, and local officials, embassies, and congressional committees and agencies including the Government Printing Office, Government Accounting Office and Library of Congress. If former classmates are in your sights, cruise over to Classmates at http://www.classmates.com to do high school alumni searches. This site boasts over 30,000 registrants from high schools in all 50 states, Canada, and some US territories. You must register to access it. Reunion Hall is another high school database. Located at http://www.nowandthen.com/reunion, this site offers free searches by name, school and region. It also does country searches. As it is a slow server, you may have problems with time-outs if you access it through a proxy server. If your interests are more recent, you may have better luck at the university level through the American Universities Web Site at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/CLAS/american-universities.html. While not strictly a people-finder, it does provide an extensive directory of links to college and university home pages from which you can move on to individual directories of students, faculty, staff and departmental research groups. It is an especially good resource if you are working in an unfamiliar area and seek academic and research input. Links to Canadian and other foreign universities, as well as community colleges, are accessible from the home page. For those of you working with the government and military, Military City at http://www.militarycity. com will come in handy. This is more of a networking resource for active and retired military personnel rather than a pure directory. Based on the emerging "community" model, it provides links to chat areas, messaging boards and a military registry. Its "moves" section provides access to an Online Bases Guide (last updated fall 1998) which lets you view information for most US military installations by service branch affiliation. Search by state or base name. The database includes contact information and facility information, but no links. For a good FAQ aptly entitled How to Find People's E-mail Addresses, drive over to http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/ finding.html. Information from this site is also available in French at http://web.fdn.fr/fdn/doc-misc/find-e-mail-add/. It is dated, but useful. Go here to learn some valuable tips on how to use directories, gopher, college e-mail lists, network mail guides, whois, finger, listservs and databases to find whom you are looking for. Another good tutorial resource/form that includes links is Search for an E-Mail Address at http://www.netcen tral.co.uk/steveb/smail.html. And if you couldn't make the Designfax Internet tutorial for marketers at the National Design Engineering Show, check out almost 150 annotated links if you are interested in marketing or e-commerce. Compiled from visits to over 1,000 sites, the list is available for a limited time at http://www. micromo.com/marketing. Copyright © 1999 Adams Business Media, Inc. Would You Like A Reprint of
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