Lately i was trying to look up people online nothing new just hoping to reconnect with a few mates from my past like an old coworker or a friend from school you think it will be easy to find basic public info these days but it’s been surprisingly frustrating most of the sites i come across either it show you just a snippet of info and blur out the rest or say they’re free but instantly throw up a paywall and also it seems a bit too sketchy to feel safe using
I’m wondering what are actually good ways or tools to look up people online these days? Are there a free tools that are still effective ?
I totally relate to your experience i was trying to reconnect with a friend from high school and thought it would be a quick search name city done but all these sites either gave me a tiny bit of info or wanted me to pay for a subscription just to see a phone number it’s wild how even basic public records are behind paywalls now.
You think that with all the data floating around online it would be easier right? But so many of these people search tools are really just marketing funnels they tease info like lives in this state or age range then demand payment for the rest i tried tools they’re hit or miss, but sometimes you get just enough to go on
Yes i had the same frustration recently i was trying to reconnect with a neighbor from childhood i tried some sites but all of them gave me one blurry clue and then asked for a subscription it’s exhausting
Honestly i think the issue is that most of the info we want is spread out and partially hidden for privacy reasons which is a double edged sword good for our own privacy but tough when you just want to reconnect with someone
I run into this exact issue most of these free search sites are just data brokers they lure you in with a name and vague info, then make you go through a bunch of loading screens just to say pay this amount to see more
It’s definitely gotten trickier years ago you could find full names addresses even phone numbers with a few clicks now it’s all gated behind subscription walls or feels a little sketchy to trust with your card info
Same here i figured it would be easy to find just a name or a location but nearly everything useful is locked away unless you’re willing to sign up or pay its frustrating when all you want to do is reconnect with someone not dig up their life history
I also tried doing these searches a few times and i always get my hopes up at first but then the results are super vague outdated or the actual details are blurred unless you hand over your card info Makes you question whether any of these sites are genuinely helpful anymore
Social media is a gamble sometimes people use their full names and leave traces and other times they disappear completely i sent messages through old shared groups before just to try my luck and weirdly that worked better than most search tools
I noticed that if someone isn’t active online or has a super common name you might as well forget it unless you know something really specific about them it all turns into a dead end pretty quickly
One time i actually found someone just by remembering their middle name and the state they lived in and plugging that into a few social platforms took me a while but at least it didn’t cost anything or lead me to a shady website
Those sites that say free background check or see who is searching you always make me laugh a bit now they give you like one initial and the rest is blurred out it’s basically a teaser trailer with no movie behind it
I know people always suggest using certain forums or threads for this kind of thing but even those can get overwhelming it feels like everyone’s trying to figure it out and no one’s really getting results unless they already have a strong lead
If i know what job someone used to have i’ll try looking that up and seeing if their name pops up in any past directories staff pages or mentions it’s slow but better than signing up for a site that just shows you generic info
