Free Online People Search vs Professional People Search Services

If you do a Google search for “free online people search,” you get search results of hundreds of websites promising to locate a specific person for free. Most of these presumably free online people search websites offer a basic public record search, which, nevertheless, is not free. It will end up costing you a fee, which most often is a subscription.

So, you pull out your credit card hoping to get the vital information that you need. Only to receive old or inaccurate information. The problem is the information these websites offer can be found using just Google or other search platforms for free. Keeping in mind that these free online people search sites are using public information that is not being updated periodically.

Investigator Advice

As an investigator, I often start out my people search investigations by using one of the many free online people search platforms available to the public. This normally gives me a good indication of how difficult it will be to locate the subject. If a person is hiding, the digital footprint online will be limited or even non-existent. Consequently, this indicates I will have to dig deep into my arsenal. That is, professional restricted databases to which the general public or online search services do not have access.

I have compiled a list of recommended ways to start your own free online people search today. As I mentioned, they are all free for initial searches by use of scraping the internet for posted and public information for the person of interest. My advice is that if you really need critical information get a premium, verified people search conducted by a Live PI (human).

Note: These sites charge a fee to go beyond the basics.

How to Do a Free Online People Search

To get the most out of your search, I recommend you use more than one site for searches. You will have to do a little more work but, after all, you’re looking for free information. Footnote: These free online people search companies basically do all these searches for you on one platform. This gives them the reason to charge you money for a free public record search.

As we all know, we are living in the information age of the Internet, which is an amazing resource to conduct a people search on yourself or another individual. However, if you or the person of interest haven’t been active online in some ways, e.g. social media, what follows is that more than likely the digital footprint will be limited and it will be difficult to obtain accurate info. When that happens, it is time for you to contact a professional who has access to databases just designed for such purposes. Our restricted database sources are updated daily unlike the free online people search archives found online.

Websites to Help You Do a Free Online People Search

Basically, knowing how and where to go to conduct a free online people search is all it takes. The following search engines and search tools will help you start looking for information on someone:

Use Google: The monster of all search engines is a great way to start your online free people search.
Facebook: Social Media – the best way to find people and connect with them.
Spokeo: Run a free people search. If you must use an online people search engine, use this one, says Live PI
Online People Search Engines: These are online people search engines and you may find some information for your free people search. Beware, though, that it may not be accurate.

Search Phone Directories

Most of us have done this simple search on Google. Simply type a land or cell phone number into your Google Chrome along with the area code. This possibly can pull up in the results to whom the phone number belongs. It may be a person or business. You will also see phone directory sites that specialize in compiling numbers to show, for example, if a number is known for spam calls. This can really come in useful when you get a call from an unknown telemarketer.

Google Phone Number Search: You can use Google to find both business and residential phone numbers on the Web.
Anywho.com: Search by phone number to find who owns it, whether it is personal or business.
WhitePages: You can search for a phone number with a person’s name. Or, you can search by phone number to see who owns it.
Cell Phone Number Search: This link may help find a cell phone number. They are usually not so easy to find as there’s no cell phone directory, really.
DexKnows: Find all types of phone listings whether they’re personal or related to a business or government agencies.
Reverse Phone Check: Another phone directory that allows you to do a reverse lookup.

Genealogy Information

You will find most free online people search sites offer fast and easy ways to access public information online. These people searches can potentially include first and last name, phone numbers, addresses, and an email address. The results depend on what information about the person of interest is publicly available.

All of the following online free people search websites will provide you results fairly easily:

Your Family: Search genealogy or find lost friends and relatives.
Family Tree Now: Find census, birth, and death records. They also have marriage and divorce records, as well as military records and information on living people.
Census Diggins: Free census records available online. Note that this is not a secure site.
FamilySearch.org: Another genealogy search website with a large record database. It is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Look for Obituaries Online

Locating information on an obituary may be more difficult than conducting a free people search. Many newspapers don’t post obituaries on the Web. But with the tools provided below and a little persistence, these websites can possibly assist you in tracking down the person of interest.

New York Times Obituaries Page: Obituary archives go way back, so you may get lucky here.
The Obituary Daily Times: Search their database and archives for obituaries available online.
Ancestry.com- Social Security Master Death Index A large family history database. You may find something for free, but you’ll need to pay to see more information.
ObitCentral: Search online obituaries, cemetery and death records within their 11.5 records.

Find Information about Businesses

You will be amazed by the amount of information most businesses offer online because they want consumers to find them. On the following websites, you can find phone numbers, addresses, owners and other revealing information:

Superpages: Find U.S. businesses. Especially good for finding local businesses.
US Securities and Exchange: Search for information about publicly traded companies.
inter800: Search for toll-free phone numbers.
LinkedIn: Last but not least, an online network of millions of professionals.

What You Should Keep in Mind When Trying to Do a Free Online People Search

Did you ever wonder why there are so many online free people search companies on the internet? Because the mark up of selling free public information is very lucrative. These free people search companies do not verify any of the information they provide. As a private investigator, I understand that these sometimes shady sites sell information I would not put too much trust into, because it may not be reliable. The only way to get accurate and verified results is to contact a company that identifies and verifies all premium people search investigations. Only a Live PI can offer you their expertise to locate and manually skip trace the correct person of interest.

Three Things to Remember When Looking for People Online

There’s no magic button for public records. As you are already aware, the Web offers an abundance of information. Regardless, there is no such site on the Internet (non-professional sites) that can provide the general public with updated people search results. Private investigators like myself use several professional restricted access data sources to identify and verify each premium people search we conduct. So, I don’t really understand the final value of these online free people search websites.
Free public information is free. Just to reiterate, any information online is FREE public records, which simply means the data is collected from blogs, forums, whitepages, websites, public databases, public directories, etc. The so-called free online people search sites use scraping software to retrieve this data onto their websites.
Anybody can find it. So, if you’re not concerned with the accuracy of your free people search, by all means, get results from one or more of the “free” sites. Beware, though, you could be wasting your money on incorrect or incomplete outdated results. The public record information these “free” people search companies sell consists of bits and pieces of public records found on thousands of sites. They just pull this data together and compile it into a report.

The information in this article should assist you to conduct an online free people search while never having to pull out your credit card. For those, who need critical information regarding locating a person or background check, I highly recommend you contact a professional like a Live PI who can identify and verify your results relatively fast at a very competitive price.