Fifteen New Free People Search Engines

Pipl is a people search engine that scours the deep Web for information; basically, what that means is that you're going to get more than just the usual search engine results for whatever name you might be searching for. Pipl searches across social networking services, search engines, databases, etc. to find tidbits you might not usually find on a rudimentary search.

Wink is a free people search engine that searches across what you would find using a regular search engine as well as across social communities, online profiles, etc. You can also use Wink to manage your online presence: "By creating a profile on Wink, you can manage your web presence. Wink allows you to claim and add various places where you are online, and provides you an interface to manage all of them in one place. This gives you the power to determine what people know about you and where you are on the web."

You can use Facebook to search for people you went to high school and college with; Facebook is also great for finding people in specific geographic locations, corporations, pretty much any kind of association that has more than one person on it can be found on Facebook.

PeekYou adds an interesting twist to the world of free people search engines; it allows you to search for usernames across a variety of social networking communities. For instance: say you would like to learn more about the person who uses the handle "I-Love-Kittens"; you can use PeekYou to see what else they might be doing on the Web under that username.

Search by user name, email address, or name at yoName; they search through a variety of unconventional sites, such as Deviant Art, Vox, LiveJournal, Xanga, etc. This is a great search engine to use to get that extra tidbit of information you might not pick up otherwise.

You can use LinkedIn to search through professional networks; you can also add your profile to network with other people with similar interests.

Riya is a very unusual people search engine; it searches for similar faces and objects on many images across the web to what you're looking for. Not for the conventional people search, but worht a try.

With over 54 million members worldwide (and counting), Friendster is a good way to search for people you might have lost touch with. Just create a profile and you're on your way to finding that person you lost touch with.

I've already talked about Spock elsewhere on About Web Search, but it's relatively brand new and thus gets a mention on this list. Spock is a little different from other people search engines, and here's how: "When you join, you can build your search network to find where everyone you know is on the internet. Every time you search, Spock will personalize your results to include information about friends and colleagues. You can enhance your search experience even further by establishing a trust relationship with others on Spock. By connecting with trusted contacts you will be able to search within their network to rediscover people you've lost touch with and make new acquaintances through friends." Worth a look.

If you're looking for someone in a professional capacity, then ZoomInfo is where I would send you first. Find information on industries, companies, people, products, services and jobs.