Looking for a person can be quick and casual with a search engine – but surprisingly difficult to get accurate results. Search engine results, depending only on matching website text, often returning too many irrelevant results or none. Not helpful.

A person search has a completely different basis of information and much more flexibility in its approach to names, greater accuracy for contact information, and a broader amount of personal information available. For a lot of situations, a professional people search is what can ferret out the information you need.

People searches fall into one of two categories: either finding information about a person or
locating where someone is.

Searching for a person is one of the most common reasons to use a search engine. According to a 2007 panel discussion on people searching (featuring Google and three social networking sites), about 30% of all search engine searches are to find people. Based on usage information from search engines and social sites like Facebook, there are several billion searches every month to track someone down.

The common method is to enter a name in a search engine or social networking site and then ... wait for a response. This is an inherently limited system:
• If a person’s name doesn’t appear on a web page, then a search engine won’t return it.
• If a person hasn’t joined a site like MySpace, then there’s no way to track them through social network sites.
• If a person’s listed name is slightly different, then there won’t be any results. This is especially tricky with initials, nicknames, married names, or middle names.

A Pew research poll shows that user behavior can make the results even less successful. Roughly 92% of searchers use between one and three search engines. Each search engine has a different way of processing results, so a listing could be on the first page of one search engine and on page four of another. Some place paid ads ahead of the most relevant results. Using a small number of search engines limits the search results for a person even more because the results are tied to a single search algorithm.

Above all, search engines look for information that is available on the web. If someone doesn’t voluntarily supply that information, in the precise format or name you’re looking for, then the search is fruitless, either because there are no results or too many to narrow down.

A search has to return current, accurate information about the specific person being searched for.
When you sit down to search for someone, you really have three questions:
• What kind of personal information are you looking for? Most personal information (like criminal histories or complete address histories) isn’t available on any website.
• What kind of information do you need to know in advance? Search engines return thousands or millions of matches for a single name. You have to know the precise name that someone used at all times to get complete results; initials, nicknames, and maiden names change search results.
• What results does a search engine give? Even if you can find someone through a search engine, you have little control over what kind of results come back.

A person search company looks at public databases, not websites, to gather information, and these databases are updated frequently, every month or two. This means you can find specific, relevant information about a person. If you’re trying to track down a lost friend or run a background check on a potential employee, the errata on the web doesn’t help you answer the core needs:
• Current address and home or cell phone number or an address history
• Background information, such as college and military records, marriages or divorces, children and support, or civil judgments
• Criminal history
• Employment records and major assets

By relying on public and private records, professional people searches report vital information which are not available through a web search. This information is more accurate because it is updated often and more complete because it doesn’t depend on people self-reporting their information.

Most important, a professional people search can recognize different names (aliases) and known relatives and friends.

Let’s say you’re trying to track down a high school buddy. This friend lives with two roommates. No landline is listed in his name, but the utility bills are. He doesn’t belong to a social networking site or have a personal web page, and his company keeps employ contact information behind a firewall. A search engine or white page search won’t return any information, because they’re limited to websites and years-old landline phone listings. A professional people search company, on the other hand, has access to a variety of public and private records. Additionally, a people search can recognize aliases, meaning the results can show that J. C. Smith, John Smith, and Johnny Smith are the same person, based on cross-referencing other public records.

And if you need help, a professional people search company has experienced support staff to help with more difficult and extensive searches.

Web search results are often too limited for many kinds of searches or to find sufficient – or sometimes any – information about many people. Whether it’s an employee background check or a search for a lost college friend, a targeted person search through a reputable people search company may be the only way to track down necessary (and accurate) information.