P.S. Summary of presentation of results to the user

I plan on getting together with Melanie again to give another demonstration of the resources where I located Jennifer. I will also show her my completed blog. We plan on going to her town library to do this, so Melanie finds out where the computers are at her library. This will also give Melanie more practice in computer literacy.

I am also going to give Melanie printouts of the pages from different Web sites detailing how I searched for Jennifer. I think she will especially like the Web page from MySpace, which has her daughter's picture on it. This will help her recognize Jennifer at the airport when she goes to visit her in June.

In closing...

This was a fun project to work on. I hope anyone reading the blog has gained valuable information about the most efficient, accurate, low-cost ways to locate someone.

Happy reunions!

What have I learned?

I have learned about numerous low-cost resources for locating someone on the Internet.

I have learned that there are shortcomings to many of the people-search sites.

I have also learned that simple, "unprofessional" resources--such as MySpace--can work better than some people-search sites that advertise themselves as being a high-tech way to find anyone, anywhere.

Yahoo's free e-mail finder and MySpace were the resources that would have enabled me to contact Jennifer completely for free. However, the venue through which I did actually find her, Classmates.com, did not cost that much (about $9 total for a 3-month "gold membership" that lets me send messages through the site).

I have also learned that you have to be wary of using your credit card on these sites (as well as other types of sites) if you do not want your address (your billing address, anyway) to appear on people-finder sites.

Also, people should know that if they are listed in the phonebook, their address and phone number will be not only in the phone directory, but all over the Internet.

What would I have done differently?

The only thing I would have done differently would be to search totally free resources first, before I went to the ones you had to pay for.

In this case, MySpace and Yahoo People Search e-mail finder would have worked and been a completely free way to contact Jennifer.

What works? What doesn't?

Most of the resources I examined worked to some degree.

However, all the sites I checked out that were dedicated to finding someone did not have Jennifer's most recent address, as she moved within the past six months and is not listed. The information on these sites may not be current if the person is unlisted, has not been involved in a court case or civil matter, and their current information has not been "leaked" to the site's database through their credit card or some other way.

I will take the consumer guide's recommendation for their top three people-finding sites, as their testers found far more current, accurate results through these sites : Net Detective; Reverse-Records; and CourtRecords.

I also learned that common Web gathering sites such as Classmates.com and MySpace work, in this case, more effectively than the people-search sites I did searches on.

Another simple search technique that worked was searching for Jennifer's e-mail address on Yahoo's People Search e-mail finder. This would have been a totally free way to get in touch with Jennifer and is also a direct piece of contact information (unlike with Classmates or MySpace, which, although allowing you to send messages through their systems, do not reveal the person's e-mail address).

Other Web gathering spots: MySpace, FaceBook

Other Web "gathering spots":

Since I found Jennifer not through a people-search site, but through a Web "gathering place," I wanted to mention a couple of other such gathering places. These sites, like Classmates.com, allow you to communicate through their system but do not reveal people's e-mail addresses or other direct contact information (unless, of course, the person posts it on their site themselves). Unlike Classmates.com, you can communicate for free through these sites:

My Space (www.myspace.com): Anyone can join MySpace and set up a homepage on it. Both people and "organizations" (mainly bands) have pages. You can search for someone by name and location.

I searched for Jennifer's name within a hundred mile radius of Tampa (since this is the original location we had for her), and it looks like I found her again! Her last name is not on the Web page, but this person is the same age as Melanie's daughter and lives in Sarasota, where we found out Jennifer lives now. She has a picture on the site and looks a little like Melanie, so I'm pretty sure it's her.

I wish I had tried to contact her through MySpace first, since it would have been totally free to do so.

FaceBook (www.facebook.com): This site is similar to MySpace, except it consists of a variety of networks grouped by high school, college, workplace, or religion. It is also free to communicate with people through FaceBook, unlike Classmates.com. However, I was unable to locate Jennifer on this site.

What were student experiences and evaluations during the whole process?

I learned that it is quite easy to find information about people on the Internet. However, I learned that if the person is not currently listed in the phone book, it is harder to get their current address. I was somewhat alarmed by some of the information that is available online. Some things I was alarmed about were:

• Many of these sites also brought up the person's relatives and neighbors
• At least one site advertised that they retrieved social security numbers and adoption records
• These sites will take your credit card number when you pay to search for someone and then add your billing address to their database and sell it to other people-search sites. However, this does help keep their databases accurate and might help you locate someone, so I guess I have mixed feelings about this practice
• Many people-search sites will often not bring up the person's current contact information if they are not listed in the phone book, haven't used their credit card to purchase anything on the Web recently (see bullet above), and have not recently been involved in a court case or legal transaction. According to the consumer guide, this is the case even if you have paid for a more advanced search. So, buyer beware!

I was happy to run across the Consumer Guide that ranked the Web sites. They pointed out how many people-search sites are no better than the white pages. I also appreciate their recommendations of three of the top search sites.

I also learned that sites that are not specifically for finding someone's contact information can also be a good way (if not a more effective way) to locate someone. For instance, Classmates.com worked for me. MySpace also worked and would have been totally free. Although these sites do not give you the person's exact contact information, they still allow you to get in touch with the person.

I came across a number of resources, including that consumer guide, through links that were on other sites. So, through following the links, I learned more information.