Find Anyone Online: 8 Free Web Resources

Want to reconnect with someone? Maybe you're needing to track down a long-lost classmate, a friend you just lost contact with, or even look up your genealogy.

You can do all this and more with the resources below that help you find someone online.

All of these sources let you track someone online for free. See Should I Pay to Find People Online? for a discussion on that.

How to Get the Most Out of This Guide

Illustration of a man searching for a person online — Theresa Chiechi / Lifewire

We suggest you do the following:

Have a word processor tool or note-taking program handy to keep track of what you find on the person. You'll likely need multiple sources to gather enough valuable information on him or her, so keeping it all logged in one place is smart.
Use as much information on the person as you have available. Do you know their full name? What about their physical address or email address? A date of birth or death can be helpful, too. These tidbits of information, and more, will be helpful in your search.
Feel free to use as many different sources as possible. It's virtually impossible to find everything you're looking for on the person from just one place.

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TruePeopleSearch: Three Ways to Find a Person

TruePeopleSearch is one of the best people search engines for finding people online. You can find a person using their cell phone or home phone, their name, or a physical address.

After tracking someone down with TruePeopleSearch, there's a ton of information to sift through, like their current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and possible relatives and associates.

Visit TruePeopleSearch

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Google: Track Someone Down All Across the Web

Google search for a person named John Smith

While a dedicated people finder tool like TruePeopleSearch is helpful, if the information on the person hasn't been gathered by that site, you won't find it. Fortunately, there are also several really great search engines you can use to broaden your search.

Google is a prime example of a handy resource for finding somebody for free because it scours a tremendous number of web pages and has all sorts of advanced commands you can use to narrow down your searches.

For example, while typing John Smith will give a general search for that name, putting the name in quotes and adding relevant information like where he's from or where he went to school, can help a lot.

"John Smith" Atlanta "Burgess-Peterson Academy"

How to Use Google to Find People Online

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Facebook: Research Strangers and Friends of Friends

Facebook is one of the largest social media sites on the web, so there's a very good chance that the person you're looking for has a profile there.

If you have the full name of the person you're looking for, you can use that to find them on Facebook. You can also find someone on Facebook using just their email address, if you have it. Typing the name of the high school, college, or company that the person you're looking for is affiliated with, can help as well.

6 Easy Ways to Search for People Using Facebook

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Obituaries: Find Someone Who Has Passed Away

Researching someone through obituaries is another option. This method can turn out to be extremely easy and successful on your first attempt, or not. Due to obituaries not always being posted online, finding them can prove to be difficult.

However, if you do manage to find more about someone through an obituary, you can find out everything from when they passed away to when and where they were born, if there are family members still around, what they did for work, where they were living, where they're buried, and more.

How to Find Obituaries Online

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Public Records: Find People Online Through Public Information

You can also find a person through public records. Some of the techniques above are considered public records but there are also criminal records, birth records, family trees, government sites, and more that can help you find someone online.

Here Are the Best Free Websites For Finding People Online

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Usersearch.org: Find a Person With Just Their Username

Usersearch.org reverse search for username

If the person you're looking for has done anything on the web, Usersearch.org should be able to pick it up. There are several ways to search for people, they're all 100 percent free to use, and it scans several websites at once for data.

Usersearch.org is a reverse search tool that finds people using their username, email address, or phone number. It even specializes in searching for people who are cryptocurrency users and who have a presence on forums.

Visit Usersearch.org

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LinkedIn: Search for Someone Using Business Information

LinkedIn people search results for John Smith

If you know the person's name that you're looking for, type it into the LinkedIn search box and you'll get information such as their current job, professional affiliations, and more.

If you're lucky, you'll be able to find lots of information on LinkedIn and end your search. Or, you can use what you find to search for the person elsewhere online. Every little bit counts.

Visit LinkedIn

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Zillow: Find a Person's House Information

The best way to search for someone when all you have is an address would be a reverse address lookup tool. However, a real estate website like Zillow lets you find other details about the person's home just by typing the address or zip code.

When you look for someone here, you won't find a person by their name or dig up any history on them like you can with some of the other methods above, but you will find a wealth of home-related details unmatched elsewhere.

Zillow digs up details like a value estimate, square footage, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, possibly pictures of the inside and the yard, the year it was built, and various features of the house.

Visit Zillow