The number of folks on the internet grows daily. I am not aware of any exact numbers of how many triad members searching are using the internet as an aid in their search. Since the numbers grow every day, I thought it would be good to address searching on the internet.

Search engines are a wonderful asset. You can enter the name you are searching for into a search engine in homes of finding he person listed on some website. If you put the name in quotation marks will aid you by finding the exact name you are searching for. In some cases if you enter a phone number in quotation marks the search results will give you the address.

Since there are so many search engines, it is impossible to list them all. However, here is a list of some search engines:
www.yahoo.com
www.google.com
www.alltheweb.com
www.altavista.com
www.ask.com
www.dogpile.com
www.hotbot.com
www.infospace.com
www.whatuseek.com

If you have non identifying information with the background of the person you are searching for you can search on that information. You can search for unions, schools, religions, athletic events, alumni, industry organizations, etc. Keep in mind that some search engines are better than others. If you don’t find the results you are looking for, then try another.

I do NOT recommend using a professional searcher or company until you have exhausted all other possibilities. However, there are some paid sites that you can get help from. One that I have used to determine the age of a person when I have an address is www.ussearch.com. I enter the person’s name, approximate age and get a list back that may give me some answers. You can narrow the search down by entering the state of residence but I usually don’t do this. Since the information is old it is difficult to know where a person may be today. If the name is a common name, I will enter the state that I suspect may be the residence.
Some counties have public records online such as marriage and divorce indexes. These would be used to learn a woman’s married name and the first name of her husband. This can be very important if they are only listed by his first name. Depending on the age of the person the greater the chance the phone is only in the husband’s name.

In some counties you can do property searches. For property look ups you want to find the county assessors office. You can use a search engine to locate this specific information.

Another tremendous resource is online phone books. These can be used to find people all over the country and even in other countries. If you enter just the last name and no other information you will see how common the name may be. You may be surprised to see a name that you are not familiar with and think will be easy to search on come up with an overwhelming number of listings.

Again, these online phone books are too numerous to list them all however, I have listed a few for your reference:
www.anywho.com
www.bigfoot.com
www.switchboard.com
www.searchbug.com
www.infobel.com
www.peoplespot.com

If you don’t find the person you are looking for you can consider asking for help from someone who lives in the city where you are searching or call directory assistance.

I also want to point out the difference between and unlisted and unpublished phone number. If you think the person you are calling has an unlisted number, call directory assistance and ask for the number. Some people don’t want their number in the phone book but the operator will give it to you. The number is unpublished in the phone book but is listed and can be given out.

Another option is to call national directory assistance. You can do this by dialing 00 and then press 1 to get an operator to look up a person across the country. You don’t need the city or state and this is more up to date than the online directories listed above. There is a fee for this and is approximately $2.

There are internet mailing lists, websites, chat groups, and newsgroups all over the internet providing support and search assistance to one another. The internet is bringing triad members together and helping everyone to understand each others feelings.

Mailings lists and chat groups are for members and you can email back and forth with others to better understand the adoption journey or receive search assistance.