Many people meet up through Facebook, Classmates.com, or Reunion.com, but that only works if the other person has signed up for the same service, and we are increasingly starting to see people leave social media sites like Facebook, to avoid having their data sold and their accounts flooded with far-right propaganda. So the two best options for finding people really boils down to white pages and the most trustworthy people search engines. Which is better?
White Pages searches
The most obvious criterion for making a choice between the two is money: white pages searches are usually provided free by search engines or phone companies, whereas people searches generally cost money. Even though this is enough reason to choose white pages, the fact remains that in most cases the people search services are a better choice for actually finding people. White pages are a good choice if you have lost an address or phone number of a good friend who has lived in the same place for a long time. That’s because the white pages on the Internet function just like a phone book, they require you to know the general area where a person lives and they are not very current. The more information you can feed into a White Pages search, the more likely you are to find the data you need… but if you know all that, you can probably get in touch with someone yourself.
People Search services
People search sites, on the other hand, use public records nation-wide to search for people based on a wide variety of criteria, like name, age, address, social security number and more. Some people search services even allow you to search by email address. The added advantage comes in being able to find people no matter where a subject has moved or how long it has been since you lost contact. The people search reports usually include additional information that is useful in identifying an old friend or relative. Good people search services can include information about address history, possible aliases or associated names and even possible relatives or household members. The white pages provide none of this information. The bottom line is that white pages are usually only useful if you already know where someone is but lost the phone number or address. But for situations where you are trying to find someone with whom you have lost contact, a people search is the best way to go. If you need more information on a specific person, you can also try using the best background check (opens in new tab) sites too.
