CNET News is reporting that the Federal Aviation Administration has announced plans to require that airline cabin crews be equipped with a way to discreetly notify pilots of suspicious activities or security breeches in the cabin – and wireless devices may be the answer to the new government requirement.  Read more at Wireless Devices Could Foil Hijack Attempts by Declan McCullagh @ CNET News.com.

Here is an opinion piece on Google’s plans to scan millions of books and make their texts searchable on the internet:  Google’s Digital Library Tests Law by the Associated Press on CNN.com.

Here is a an interesting development in "deep" or "invisible" web technology.  The article details how a start-up company called Glenbrook Networks is trying to bring together deep web resources into one search engine that would search numerous, separate databases at once.   You can read more about this at The Mining of the Invisible Web by Rikki Kirzner @ IT-Director.com .

The "deep web" is the part of the internet that is not typically indexed by the major search engines.  It includes searchable public record databases; company databases; non standard file formats ( like image files, audio files, adobe acrobat files etc. ).  The deep web contains a lot of useful information for skip tracers and private investigators.  A good overview of the deep web can be found at University At Albany, New York .

A directory of deep web and specialized web search engines can be found at 411 x 411 Deep Web and Specialty Search Engines .

While most search engines use keyword content to return page results to users, the Orion search engine, developed by Australian researchers, will return expert results based on content that is strongly related to the searched keywords and phrases.  This could be a great step forward in search engine technology for internet research.  For example,  a search for "people finder"  could possibly return expert results that are strongly related to that type of search, like skip tracing, skip trace, investigations, public records etc.

You can read the full article at Aussies Turn Web Search Upside Down by VNU Business Online Ltd and Top Tech News. 

It is usually not necessary to pay hundreds of dollars to a professional to find people from your past.   If you are trying to find a person from your past like a family member, friend, classmate, coworker, chances are that you already know enough about the person to find them yourself, even if you don’t know the person’s social security number. 

When starting your own free people search, write down all known identifying information about the person that you can remember.  Here are some ideas and tips for finding people you’re are searching for.

1.  The person’s first / last names, nicknames, married and maiden names (for married females). If the last name is not common, you can do a last name only search for states that the person has lived in to find possible family members to contact.

2.  Any schools attended – high school, college, trade schools etc.  Contact high school reunion groups or university alumni organizations for help in locating the person.  In addition, you should contact any student groups that the person was involved in – fraternities, sororities,  political and social student organizations etc.

3. Any place that the person lived.  Where did they grow up?  Where have they lived?  These are places where they may still have family members with the same last name that you can contact for help in finding the person.

4.  Mutual friends and acquaintances that you and the person you are looking for have in common.  Contact a mutual friend, colleague etc. to help you find the person.

5.  What profession is the person involved in?  Most states require licensing for many professional jobs like doctors, lawyers and beauticians.   Sometimes people can be found with a business address and phone number through professional searches on state government sites.  In addition, a simple search engine search for the person may turn up possible business addresses and phone numbers that have been published online as well as any published comments or professional writings from the person.

6.  Place a missed connections ad in a publication that is printed in an area that the person lived in or on a message board, like www.craigslist.com .

Finding a person from your past may not always be easy, but it doesn’t have to be expensive if you use these tips.  Once you start your free people search, you will think of additional ideas and contacts to find the person.

For a directory of the web’s best free people searches, finders and locators, visit http://www.411×411.com .

Good luck with your searches!

If you would like to add some free people search tips / ideas of your own, please use the comments link below this post to submit your ideas and opinions.

The Dutch Health Ministry has announced plans to track every Dutch citizen from cradle to grave with a national database set for use on January 1, 2007.  The new database is designed to track truancy records and criminal behavior among the population and ease communications and information sharing between various Dutch government agencies.   You can read  the entire article Dutch Treat: Personal Database by The Associated Press @ Wired.com.

411×411.com has launched a free people and web search directory specifically designed for web-enabled cell phones, personal data assistants ( PDAs ) and other mobile devices with a web connection.  Now skip tracers, investigators and the general public will have all the top mobile people and web searches in one convenient directory.

The 411×411 Mobile Directory contains white pages; yellow pages; reverse phone number lookup; reverse address lookup; neighbor searches; Google Web and Google Local searches, as well as Mapquest’s map and driving directions searches.  All the listed searches have been specifically designed for  web – enabled cell phone and mobile device access.

You can access the 411×411 Mobile Directory at http://www.411×411.com/mobile/ .  Don’t forget to save the address to your cell phone or mobile device for quick and convenient access to all of the above search listings. 

As more mobile searches are located, they will be added to the directory.

Good luck with your searches.

411×411.com PC Version – The web’s best free people search engines, public records sites and web searches directory.

The National Atlas  allows you to view maps of the United States with various demographic and geographic layers.

Map layer subjects include:
- Agriculture
- Biology
- Boundaries
- Climate
- Environment
- Geology
- History
- Map Reference
- People
- Transportation
- Water

Answers dot com  pulls information from dictionaries, glossaries, encyclopedias and atlases to return concise answers and facts on over a million topics, without all of the zillions of link results that you have to wade through on the major search engines.