*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of March 17, 1997 This is the free weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan is finder of lost loves! Private investigator! On the lookout for missing persons. Well, maybe not, but he will show how you can use the Internet to search for people. =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Looking for Someone? Eagle's Exploits -- More Search Sites Upcoming Weekly Focus -- What's coming up The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Pointers to people-finders, lots more ANSWERMAN Daily tips and Internet message boards NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY Decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan Go to keyword AM FOCUS Net Tutorial =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Looking for Someone? =*=*= So I was going to start this week's newsletter by talking about Shara, a long lost friend from high school whom I've lost touch with. I was going to talk about how I'd looked high and low, how I'd tried all the various people-finding tools on the Internet, and how I'd failed to find Shara. Then, I was going to write about all the interesting people that I have successfully found with Internet search tools -- an ex-girlfriend, a college buddy, and several other old friends. As fate would have it, I would moan, Shara, the one person that I really wanted to catch up with, was nowhere to be found. Then in the course of proofreading CJ Eagle's column, I tried a search tool that I'd never heard of (the InfoSpace AccuMail Search, available via http://www.search.com/Single/0,7,300492,00.html). I searched for her name, and to my surprise and delight, there was a match! I don't know yet if I found the same Shara that used to pass notes with me in algebra class, but I fired off an e-mail message to that address and am anxiously awaiting a reply. So, despite the fact that my planned introduction to this newsletter had to be scrapped, it was a pretty good day. Everyone's looking for someone -- I bet you can't page through an old yearbook or photo album without wondering "what ever happened to him?" The Internet can help -- there are several excellent tools for searching for people with the Net. But the tricks for searching for people are a little different than searching for information, which I covered last week. Let's take a look at some people-finding tools and some ideas on making the most of your search. If you're desperately seeking Susan (or Joel or Karen or Bill or Angie...) read on. Start close to home -- with AOL's own member directory, at (you guessed it) keyword MEMBER DIRECTORY. Type in a name and pour through the results. With some 8 million members, it's conceivable that your friend's logged in to the same server that you are. Failing that, it's time to break out the big guns. The Net offers several great tools for finding folks. Three fine tools for finding people who have online accounts are: Big Foot (at http://www.bigfoot.com), WhoWhere (at http://wwww.whowhere.com) and Internet Address Finder at (http://www.iaf.net). They're all easy to use -- just enter a name (and any information about the person's location, if you have it) and see what comes up. (CJ Eagle writes about some other tools in her column.) Of course, not everyone has an Internet account, and that's why I adore SwitchBoard at http://www.switchboard.com. This tool has 90 million names and phone numbers compiled from information from telephone books across the United States. If a person has a listed phone number, chances are good that he or she is in Switchboard. (Here's a SwitchBoard tip: if the first and last names don't make a match, try the last name and first initial -- many people are listed in the phone book that way.) Generally, when you're searching for information on the Net, my motto is choose your favorite search engine and stick with it. But that's not the best strategy when you're looking for a person. Each Net resource for looking for folks has its own database, and gets its information from its own sources -- some overlap, but many contain unique information unavailable with the others. So if you're hunting for someone, my motto is: be thorough, try them all. No matter which search tool you're using, searching for people has some of the same problems as searching for information. Particularly if you're looking for someone with a common name like John Smith, you're likely to have a lot more false hits than if you're looking for your old friend Zaphod Beeblebrox. In John's case, narrow your search as much as your can with any other information you've got -- perhaps you can guess that he's still living in Idaho where you last saw him? Your high school yearbooks are piled high but you still haven't found those old classmates? Then go to ClassMates online at http://www.classmates.com/. You've got to be registered (free) or a member ($$) but once you are, it's easy to find others in your graduating class. If you really want to explore all the nooks and crannies of the Net in search of a lost love, a great site to visit is the FAQ How to find people's E-mail addresses, at http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/bigfinding.html. This document covers many lesser-known tricks for searching for people online. Finally, if you want to send a fan letter to a celebrity, try the Celebrity Addresses page (http://www.rawspace.com/askjones/address.htm), an index to more than 1,300 famous folks. Many of these listings are postal addresses, not e-mail, so be ready to dig out that old stationary. Good luck in your search -- these Internet tools are an easy way to start hunting. But remember, just because you find a name that matches doesn't mean it's the same person, or that they're still at that e-mail address or phone number. No system is foolproof. I'll try to keep those things in mind while I wait for a reply from Shara. -.-.- AOL's NetFind -.-.- One last tidbit for today. AOL just launched its new NetFind tool (which you can access at keyword NETFIND or http://www.aol.com/netfind/). NetFind offers a central point for doing all sorts of nifty Net searches. There are links to people-finding tools, but you'll also find that NetFind's great for searching all of the Web. In addition, there are lots of groovy site reviews, links to interactive map tools, kid's sites, newsgroups and more. NetFind offers a lot of information, but manages to remain easy to navigate. Check it out. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AM FOCUS: More people-finding tools MEMBER DIRECTORY: search AOL memebers BigFoot WhoWhere Internet Address Finder SwitchBoard ClassMates Online FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses? Celebrity Addresses NETFIND: Search the Web =*=*= EAGLE's EXPLOITS -- More Search Sites =*=*= by Aminie D. Elsberry (CJ Eagle) When you are reminiscing sometimes don't you ever wonder "What ever happened to "? I do, and I found some great sites to look for those long lost friends, relatives, countrymen, whomever. My first stop was at C|net's site located at http://www.search.com/Seeking/Someone. At this site you'll find important tips on how to search and links to many other sites where you can actually do searches. What I like most about this site are the explanations that go along with all the links. A great place to start your search! In fact it has links to many of the sites the sites that are listed here -- kinda a one stop shopping place for finding that special (or not-so special) someone. Next stop was Four11 at http://www.four11.com. This is one of the largest e-mail databases available with more than six million listings. You simply type in the person's name, then see what you get back. They may or may not be listed but if at first you don't succeed, be sure to check out Four11's help to refine your search. You can also register your own e-mail address -- someone just might be looking for you! Can't find their e-mail address? How about searching for their address and/or phone number? The largest database of phone numbers is the Switchboard (catchy name) located at http://www.switchboard.com. Here you enter the last name and any other information you might know (like first name, city, etc.) and if they are listed in a phone directory -- it'll more than likely show up here. Next, you might try searching for their web page or a Usenet (newsgroup) posting. All the fashionable search engines have ways to search for people, including Yahoo (at http://www.yahoo.com/search/people), AltaVista (at http://www.altavista.digital.com) and Infoseek (at http://www.infoseek.com). If the subject of your search in on the Net and posts to Usenet newsgroups, you may be able to find him. To see if your friend has posted any messages to a newsgroup, try DejaNews (at http://www.dejanews.com). If you have success I'd be happy to hear from you -- send me some e-mail at cjeagle@aol.com and tell me your success story! Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AM FOCUS: More people-finding tools C|net: Seeking Someone Four11 SwitchBoard Yahoo people search AltaVista Infoseek DejaNews =*=*= UPCOMING WEEKLY FOCUS =*=*= Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: March 24 - March 30: Chatting on the Web March 31 - April 6: Privacy & the Internet (AnswerMan's Sunday chats are on hiatus.) =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is AnswerMan@aol.com. We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Now this is the story all about how my life got flip turned upside down. I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, and tell you copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved. Yo holmes, smell ya later.