Google is still one of the best free people search engines online. With the right search you can find people from your past through a Google search. Some of the top people search results on Google include social network profiles from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc.

Here are some tips for finding someone on Google:

– Start by just Googling the person’s name. This may be all you need to do to find contact information for the person. Often times a simple name search will return directory assistance listings, social network profiles or other contact information on people.

– If Googling the person’s name does not work, try a Google search for their name in quotes like: “James Smith” or “Mary Smith”. This type of name search will weed out a lot of junk search engine results.

– You can also try a Google wildcard search ( using a * ) to factor in a middle name or initial in your search: “James * Smith” or “Mary * Smith”

– Don’t forget to search for alternative names on Google – like searching Jim for James or Bob for Robert.

– Try your Google search with and without any known nicknames that the person has been known by.

– For married females, don’t forget to search using maiden names, if known.

– If Google returns too many search results for common first and last names, use personal identifiers in your search to zero in on the person you are trying to find. If you know the person’s city, profession, relatives’ names, colleges or schools attended, or any personal identifiers, include these words in your search.

Skipease.com has just published a downloadable presentation of free people search tips with online people search tools for anyone out there who is trying to reconnect with past friends and family.

You can view, download and share the people search tips on scribd.com @ Free People Search Tips.

You can now follow Skipease free people search news and tips on Twitter.

We will provide short, ongoing updates on news, information and resources on people search and public records on our Twitter thread.

You can follow us on Twitter @ Skipease People Search Twitter.

Professional people finder and private investigator Robert Scott has produced an inexpensive web-based skip tracing seminar and eBook to teach professional people search techniques.

His Skip Trace Seminar is a useful tool for debt collectors; private investigators; skip tracers; repo agents; bail bond agents; judgement recovery professionals or anyone wanting to learn advanced people search skills.

The Skip Trace Seminar covers the following topics:

1. The skip tracer’s toolbox.

2. Finding people on the web.

3. Commercial people searches versus free internet searches.

4. Obtaining access to commercial people search databases.

5. Pre-skip tracing efforts.

6. The three types of skips.

7. Robert’s golden people finder strategies.

8. What credit headers are and how they can be used to find people.

9. Phone number records – the second most important source of information for a successful people search.

10. Using credit headers and phone number records together for a powerful skip trace tool.

11. Verifying or eliminating a person’s address(es).

12. A discussion of the active phone line exception.

13. The golden people search strategy – credit headers always come first.

14. The golden people search strategy in practice.

15. Overcoming dead ends by finding new leads in your skip trace.

16. The use of motor vehicle records in your people search.

17. Three of the best free internet people search engines.

18. The use of public records in finding people.

19. The use of people contacts in skip tracing.

20. Using information brokers, pretext phone calls and trap lines in finding a person.

21. The five common people search mistakes that new skip tracers make.

22. Search secrets of the expert skip tracers.

You can find out more about Robert Scott’s Skip Trace Seminar as well as view a free sample lesson at Skip Trace Seminar.

When most people think about the uses for an online mapping tool like Google Maps, they typically think of it as a good search engine for finding locations and getting driving directions, but have you ever considered Google Maps to be a good option for doing people searches and lookups?

The Google Map search is rapidly becoming a very useful people search engine, especially if you are looking for someone who works in a licensed or professional field. By combining information found on web sites with map locations as well as user contributed information; Google Maps is becoming a good way to find location and personal information on people.

Let’s run through a few example people searches, using Googe Maps, with links to results ( use the loc: handle in your map searches to specify the location of the search) :

1. A general people search for John Doe in the state of California would look like this – John Doe loc: California.

2. A more specific people search for John Doe in the state of California, using quotes around John and Doe would give these results – “John Doe” loc: California.

3. Here is an example of a general people search for John J Doe in the state of California, using a middle initial – John J Doe loc: California.

4. Another people search example for John J Doe in California, using quotes around the name to narrow down the results, would look like this: “John J Doe” loc: California.

5. You can also specify both a city and state in you Google Maps people search by using the loc: handle with the city and state names after it. For example, a search for John Doe in Los Angeles, California would look like this: John Doe loc: Los Angeles, California.

There are numerous options for doing people searches, using the Google Maps search engine. You can do a nationwide search for John Doe in the United States, like John Doe loc: United States.

The possibilities for doing free people searches using Google Maps are endless. The more you practice searching for a person on Google Maps and the more information Google adds to their map search in the future, the better this tool will get for finding and locating people.

Good luck with your people searches.