The amateur detective
Depending on what you're looking for, the kind of information available online can be broken down in a variety of ways. Here's how this case developed, with links to some basic resources.
Searching the Net can be anything but elementary. But never fear: You can put some method in the madness. Here are the steps that our stealthy reporter followed and some links that could help jump-start a search of your own.
Getting tipped off
Pages that provide useful links and instruction on
how to be a cybersleuth.
 | The Stalker's Home Page: provides a wealth of tips and links to find and protect private information |
| The Private Investigators Mall: an excellent starting point. It provides several links to PI home pages, referrals to investigators, tips on conducting searches, and a list of links |
| Finding People on the Internet |
| Sherlock@--The Internet Consulting Detective: a storehouse of tips and links |
| The Internet Sleuth |
| CNET's SEARCH.COM |
| Yahoo's list of online investigators |
| Yahoo or Excite: if the person is a Net user |
| Yahoo's people search |
| InfoSpace |
| DejaNews: a fully searchable archive of bulletin boards |
| Switchboard: a popular nationwide telephone directory |
| Four11 White Pages: telephone and email directory. |
| Internet Address Finder |
Digging deeper
Sites that allow more specific, free searches.
| Military City Online Web Outpost: to search out people in the armed services |
| Gopher links to university and other directories |
| ReuNet: The Reunion Network: billed as the original missing people's network, this site helps find long-lost family and friends |
| Ancestry Search: includes a free Social Security search of deceased Americans and other links |
| The Missing Persons Pages: search a database of missing persons or submit a report about a missing person |
| 1-800-U.S. SEARCH. |
| Nationwide Investigations |
| Pritchett Bureau of Investigation |
| The Integrity Center |
On the record
Sites that allow searches of record databases; a
combination of free and pay services
| KnowX and the The American Information Network will do court public records searches for free; you have to pay for the information if it's found, but it's fairly cheap |
| Confi-chek is a brand-new site that says it will allow limited low-fee automated checks of records |
| CDB Infotek is one of the most popular Web databases used by investigators but requires membership |
| WESTLAW is another subscription-based service |
When all else fails
Sites that tell you where to write for information.
| Where to write for vital records |
(NOTE: This is by no means a comprehensive list of all engines and services on the Net. NEWS.COM does not endorse the sites behind these links.)