Trying to find someone on the internet can be a pain when you only have limited information about that person (e.g., the person’s first or last name, email address, phone number, image, or even just a social media username).

Fortunately, there are always ways to uncover the information you want using online resources. This post will guide you through how to look up someone’s information step by step.

1. Google the Person
   By name
   By image
   By number
   By username
2. Try Social Media
3. Check Public Records
4. Use People Search Engines

1. Find Someone via Google Search

Google is much more than just a search engine. It offers various easy-to-use search tools that you can use to track down someone online from billions of databases.

Below are some techniques you can apply to look up someone with Google:

Google the person by name

If you already have the name of the person you’d like to find, just type it into the Google search field. Before you click the Search button, it’s essential you put quotation marks around the name. For example, if you want to look for information related to James Smith, type “James Smith” into the search bar.

Using quotes will tell Google that you’re only looking for an exact match, instead of pages containing the name James or Smith. This helps filter out vague matches and speeds up your searches.

If you know any other information associated with that person, such as the address, company name, etc… try combining that piece of information with the name to get more precise results. Chances are, if the person has a combination of these things listed on his/her social media profile, it may well come up as a result!

Use Google Images to look up the person

Many people upload photos online these days. So when you suspect that someone is using fake pictures, or you just want to find someone’s photo, Google Images might be able to help you do the investigation.

Google Images can be used in two ways: a) find someone’s photo by searching for information you know about the person (e.g., the person’s name, or social media username), or b) look up someone’s photo to find out who the person is.

If you know the name of the person you want to track down, just type it in Google to see if there’s any photo related to the name (assuming you know what the person you’re trying to find looks like). This may bring up the person’s social media profile image. If it does, click into the page and you’ll be able to view more photos from the person.  

Google Images can also be quite useful when you only have a picture of the person and you’d like to find out more information about them. In this case, you just click the camera icon in the search box to upload the image, and Google will scan the image and pull up web pages containing the same photo, or if the photo belongs to a celebrity, Google might be able to tell you who the person is in the photo.

Google the phone number

If you keep getting unknown calls, you can use Google as a reverse phone number search tool to find out information about the caller. Just type in the number in Google to see if anything comes out.

You may be able to find the name or location of the caller through Google. But if you want a detailed report of the caller, you may need a reverse phone lookup service like BeenVerified or Spokeo.

Read More: How to Find People with Phone Number

Find someone by username

Many people use the same username for different social media accounts, so you might try searching the person’s username (if you already have one) on Google to see if it brings up their profile on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

For example, you could type twitter.com/username, or facebook.com/username in your browser, then press Enter to know if the person has an account on both sites.

Read More: How to Find Someone by Username

2. Track Down People on Social Media

Social media is also a useful resource when you need to find people because many people list their full name, email address, location, or phone number when registering for social media accounts. So try search the information you know about the person on major social networks.

Since many social networks do not allow users to search people by email addresses or phone numbers directly, here are a few techniques you can apply.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social networking website with hundreds of millions of users worldwide – your odds of tracking down the person you’re looking for are quite high.

If you’re a Facebook user yourself, you would know that Facebook lets you add a lot of personal information to your profile. Try to search every information you have of that person to see if you can find any profiles associated with him/her. 

For example, if you know the person’s name, you can just type it into the search bar to see what shows up. To make the results more relevant, you can use filters like City, Education, and Work.

Depending on how people have made their personal information public, you can use an email address, a phone number, a college, or a workplace to find information about the person, too.

You won’t get any results if the person has blocked your Facebook account, or if they don’t use Facebook. Read on to see how to find someone on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn

Searching LinkedIn is another great way to bring up someone’s profile. LinkedIn aggregates people and company information in one place and can provide you with useful information tied to the individual, such as a number, email address, and business contact resources.

Search LinkedIn by names

If you’re ready to find a specific person on LinkedIn by name, follow the instructions below:

1. Log into your LinkedIn profile.
2. Type the person’s name into the search bar and press Enter on your keyboard.
3. Click People to see only results for individual users. You can also click All filters to use Advanced searches to narrow down the results.
   If you know the company where the person used to work or the approximate location of the person, using them would be a big help!
   

Search LinkedIn by email address

You might get thousands of results using LinkedIn search by name features. It would be much simpler if you knew the person’s email address. Though LinkedIn doesn’t make this easy, it is possible to find someone’s profile by email address.

You would need a Microsoft Outlook account and a LinkedIn Account – both registered with the same email. Then follow the instructions below to see how to find some on LinkedIn through email:

1. Go to Outlook and log into your account.
2. Click the People icon on the left, then click New contact.
   
3. Fill in the First Name and the Email address, then click Create.
   
4. Go back to your Contact page and click the contact you just created. Click LinkedIn and log in to your account to connect your Microsoft Outlook account to your Microsoft LinkedIn account.
5. Back to Outlook and you can see the LinkedIn profile of the email address you were searching for! Click See full profile on LinkedIn button to view it on LinkedIn.

If there’s no profile, it means no LinkedIn account is linked to that email address.

Search LinkedIn by School, Workplace…

If you know where the person you’re searching for has worked or studied, just search the place to see if you can find any luck there.

You might be able to find who you are looking for through their company page on LinkedIn!

3. Check Public Records

Most criminal court records are accessible to the public. If you wish to find records of conviction for a certain person, you can go to a court clerk’s office and, sometimes, on a court or state agency website.

If you don’t know which agency you should go to look for information, search on USA.gov which provides a huge database for all state and federal agencies.

4. Find Anyone Online via People Search Engines

The process of tracking down someone online can be tricky. If you don’t feel like wasting your time bouncing from one site to another, but you still want accurate results, your best bet is using a dedicated people search engine like BeenVerified.

People search engines are designed specifically to lookup people’s background information, e.g., their contact information, job history, relatives, marriage records, social media profiles, criminal records, etc.

BeenVerified

BeenVerified is definitely the best background check tool on the market. It combines a vast database of aggregated public data from public records, social media accounts, criminal history information, property records, and more.

The tool allows you to find comprehensive information related to an individual easily.

1. Go to BeenVerified.

2. Select what information you have about the person; for example, type the person’s name into the search bar and click Search Now.

Note BeenVerified also provides many other ways to search for people – you can search by address, email address, social media username, vehicle identification number (VIN), and more.

3. BeenVerified will return background reports associated with the piece of information you entered. Each report will include contact information, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, criminal records, social media, and more.

Note that BeenVerified is a subscription-based service, so you will need a membership to access the report.

PeopleFinders

Another easy way to do a reverse search to find someone’s background details is using PeopleFinders. PeopleFinders is a leading Data-as-a-Service provider that has one of the most comprehensive collections of public records data available.

What we like most about the tool is, unlike many other people search sites, PeopleFinders explains what the report did and didn’t find before you pay and it even allows you to view a few details of the search result for free, such as the person’s age, family members, and the first few digits of his/her phone number. 

1. Go to the People Finders official page.

2. Type the person’s name, phone number, email, or address and hit Search.

3. You’ll get up-to-date information about the person, such as the name, address, phone number, and other pertinent background info.

Social Catfish

Social Catfish is another powerful online investigation service that scours millions of detailed public records from across the web to find people’s background info, criminal records and social media profiles.

All you need to do is enter the name of the person you’re trying to find, and Social Catfish will search through billions of records across a range of public records databases, then present you with a report on that person.

Spokeo

Another powerful people search tool is Spokeo. The tool takes people searches to a whole new level, known for it’s fast search capacity and comprehensive reports. 

Aside from being one of the fastest people search sites, Spokeo is also affordable. A one-time name report – which includes address, email, phone number, location history, marital status, and family, costs only 95 cents if you opt into a free seven-day trial membership. (After the trial ends, make sure you cancel the service if you don’t need it anymore; otherwise, it bills you at $24.95 per month.)

1. Go to Spokeo.

2. Type the information you have about that person into the search bar and click SEARCH NOW.

We’ll use the name lookup feature for this tutorial, but you can also search by social media username, phone number, address, or email to bring up the details associated with the owner.

3. Spokeo then searches for the person’s full name, age, address, family info carrier details, and more.

Conclusion

It can be really time-consuming and confusing to find people on the internet, especially when you only know very little about them. If you feel lost on your searches and you want accurate results, consider using people search sites to get detailed information about the person.

If you don’t feel like paying for the information, try our searching tips and see if you can track down the person on Google and social media platforms. Going to a court clerk’s office or visiting a court website are also good ways when you’re trying to find out someone’s criminal records.

Hopefully, these tips helped. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions. Or, do you have any tricks on this topic? Welcome to share your thoughts with us!

By Ellie Zhuang

Content crafter at Super Easy. Ellie is a foodie at heart who also happens to be an extreme couponer. She enjoys discovering new and helpful coupon tips and tricks.In addition to writing for Super Easy, she also posts technical guides, tips, and how-tos at Driver Easy.

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