Searching for People by Name

As part of its massive database of information, Google now includes listings for millions of U.S. households in what it calls the Google PhoneBook. You search the PhoneBook listings from the main Google search box, using specific query parameters.

There are six ways you can search for a person or household in the Google PhoneBook. Table 4.1 details each of these methods, along with an example for each.

Table 4.1. Ways to Search for People and Households

Query	Example
First name (or initial), last name, city	john smith minneapolis
First name (or initial), last name, state	john smith mn
First name (or initial), last name, city, state	john smith minneapolis mn
First name (or initial), last name, ZIP Code	john smith 55909
Last name, city, state	smith minneapolis mn
Last name, ZIP Code	smith 55909

As you might suspect, the more details you provide, the more targeted your results will be. Searching for all the Smiths in Minneapolis will produce a higher number of results (most of them unwanted) than searching for all the John Smiths; searching for all the John Smiths in a particular ZIP Code will be much more efficient than searching for all the John Smiths in an entire state.

When you enter your query using one of these methods, Google returns a search result page with a PhoneBook Results item at the top of the results list, as shown in Figure 4.1. The top matching names are listed here, along with the following information:

Figure 4.1. The results of a Google PhoneBook search.

Caution

Because it takes so long to get change of address information into the system, Google PhoneBook listings may not always be up-to-date. In addition, Google can only display names that are publicly available. If a person's phone number is unlisted, it won't be displayed.

• First and last name

• Phone number

• Street address

• City

• State

• ZIP Code

• Links to maps of this address via Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, and MapQuest

Probably the neatest thing here is the ability to quickly map each address. Just click one of the map links (I prefer Google Maps), and find out exactly where that person lives. (Figure 4.2 shows an address mapped with Google Maps.)

Figure 4.2. A PhoneBook address mapped with Google Maps.

Tip

Once you're on a PhoneBook results page, you can opt to conduct a new PhoneBook query by entering the person's name and information into the search box at the top of the page, and then clicking the Search PhoneBook button.

The two or three names listed on the results page aren't the only matches in the Google PhoneBook, however. To see the other matching names, click the Phonebook Results link on the search results page. This displays a full page of PhoneBook listings, as shown in Figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3. Residential and business results from the Google PhoneBook.

Again, these listings include the full name, address, phone number, and map links for each listing. The names are segregated into business and residential listings; the business listings are typically for professionals like lawyers, doctors, and the like.

Note

The business results in the Google PhoneBook are served up by the Google Maps service. Learn more in Chapter 18, "Using Google Maps."

And, as you've no doubt noticed, even this page only lists a handful of the available resultsfive each of the residential and business listings. To see more listings, click the More Residential Listings link at the bottom of the page.

Commentary: Better People Finders

Let's be honest. Google is not the only place to search for people on the Internetand it's far from the best. Better results can be found at one of the many sites that offer dedicated white pages directories, such as InfoSpace (www.infospace.com), Switchboard (www.switchboard.com), and White Pages.com (www.whitepages.com). Also good is The Ultimates (www.theultimates.com), a metasearch engine that queries multiple white pages directories from a single page, and Argali White & Yellow (www.argali.com), which also aggregates results from multiple directories and search engines.

These people finder sites let you search by full name (or any variation thereof), and refine your search by state, city, ZIP Code, and the like. The results from these sites display full name, address, and telephone number, and sometimes a link to a map of that person's neighborhood. Some people finders also let you do reverse phone-number lookups, like Google purports to dobut these sites offer much larger directories of numbers than does Google.

Beyond standard white pages directories, I have a special fondness for ZoomInfo (www.zoominfo.com), which is a search engine like Google, but specialized for people searching (see Figure 4.4). When you search for a person's name, ZoomInfo automatically creates a summary page for that person, based on all the references to that person found on the Web. It's kind of like an automatic biography generator, and it works pretty well. (See the figure for the summary page it generated for menot totally accurate, but close.) In any case, if you do any amount of people searching, ZoomInfo is worth adding to your favorites list.

Figure 4.4. A typical ZoomInfo profile.

As much as I like Google, it isn't always the best tool for particular types of searches. Searching for people just happens to be one of those areas.