You never know who'll be on the Web

Computer Life column for 7/19/97 by
Richard Gordon

Last year, I used the Web to look up a friend from the 1970s, going to Alta Vista (www.altavista.digital.com) and just typing my friend's name in the search box. Of course, her name is quite uncommon.

It's not usually that easy.

I also tried to find one of my college roommates using the Web. I found about a dozen people with his name. Since I lost track of him about 18 years ago I had no idea if he's the one living in New Jersey, Vermont, Maine or California.

How hard is it to track someone down?

In addition to the general purpose search tools, several services allow you to look for people using the Web. Some of these tools let you search the White Pages for the entire United States or other public domain information; others allow you to search information provided by individuals.

WhoWhere (www.whowhere.com) and Switchboard (www.switchboard.com) both found me and a ton of my namesakes. DataBase America (www.databaseamerica.com or www.lookupusa.com) told me that it found 734 Richard Gordon's in the United States. But when I restricted the search to Delaware only, it found most of the other Richard Gordon's in the state, but not me!

All three of these search engines are "White Pages" search tools. Several years ago, I found that Switchboard didn't have an entry for me, so I submitted a supplemental entry so I would be listed. Database America updates its entries quarterly, so I suspect that I'm not listed there because word has reached them that I tell all telemarketers who call to add my family to their companies' "no call lists."

Search by phone number

These three services do have telemarketing in mind; therefore they don't provide an easy way to add information about the person you are searching for, but they do provide ways an individual can request that his or her listing be suppressed.

The Database America Web page also allows you to enter a phone number and find whose it is--so long as the phone number is in that data base.

Another service, Bigfoot (www.bigfoot.com), found me, my home address, and my e-mail address with almost disconcerting ease--once I told it to search in Delaware. In addition to providing a search of phone books in the US, Bigfoot allows you to register information about yourself and your past residences and e-mail addresses. But Bigfoot doesn't have a way to help a searcher find the Richard Gordon who ran track at Kenyon College in 1974.

That's where services such as Four Eleven (www.four11.com) can be useful. Four Eleven lists information that over 4 million people have submitted about themselves. If the person you're looking for wants to be found, he might be registered here.

If the person you are looking for has led an active life on the Net, the general purpose search tools may provide you with more information to help you find the person you are looking for, even if he or she has a common name.

For example, Alta Vista found over 600 references to my name. Some did point to the trail of electrons I've left on the Net, but many pointed to the hordes of impostors out there.

Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com) only found two Web documents that referred to me: entries I'd made in two obscure electronic guestbooks, one at a friend's web site, the other at a vintage guitar shop in Nashville.

On the other hand, Excite (www.excite.com) beat a pretty straight path to my home page, after I gave it the hint to add "Delaware" to its search.

An early introduction

Sometimes my electronic trail has led to funny situations.

Once, as I was calling the kids on one of the soccer teams I coach at the Western YMCA, one mother let out a scream when I introduced myself over the phone. "What's the matter?", I asked.

Their family, in one of their first sessions on the Web had done a search for "Western YMCA." My online resume was one of the first things to pop up.

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

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