With all the internet has to offer, it is an excellent resource to find long lost siblings online. Perhaps your brother or sister was put up for adoption many years ago, perhaps you have never even met him or her, or maybe you have just lost contact over the years? Whatever the case, it is worth your while to harness the information-sharing capabilities of the web to get in contact once again with your long lost relatives.
Where do I start?
If you are an internet user, there is a large chance that you are one of Facebook’s over 500 million users. And there is a chance that your long lost sibling is too. If you are already a Facebook user, simply log on to your account and type the name of your sibling in the search function at the top of the page. A list of matching names will appear, and you can look through these to see if any relate to the person you are looking for. If so, you can contact them by sending them a Facebook message or adding them as a friend. If you are not already a Facebook user, opening up an account is relatively easy. Simply go to www.facebook.com and enter your “Sign Up” details to get started. One of the benefits of Facebook is that people list themselves on the social network as a personal choice, in the knowledge that others may be able to track them down. This means that if you track someone down on Facebook, they are likely to be more receptive to any contact you make with them.
If Facebook yields no finding joy, don’t despair as there are a number of other internet resources which can help you find long lost siblings online.
Good ol’ Google is another search engine that can come up people-finding results. Although it is not specifically dedicated to people-finding, Google’s got it all and then some. In fact, many of the specialized people search engines use Google as their primary point of reference. Today, more and more people have some kind of online presence, making it easy to use a broad search engine such as Google to find the people you are looking for. Another benefit of using Google is that you can include more “clues” in the search. Rather than just a name or email address, you can include a keyword relating to something you know about that person, such as a job or hobby.
Pipl (www.pipl.com) is a specialised people-search engine that claims to “dive into the deep web”, bringing results that other search engines won’t find easily. The website then uses this information to link the results found on the web to create a set of profiles that may relate to the person you are looking for. All you need to do is enter a name, email, phone number or any other details you may have about that person. Pipl looks at databases and indexes that other search engines do not, and Pipl can come up with a range of web content dealing with that person, from photos, to blog entries, to public record donations, social or business network profiles, as well as a host of other sources.
A similar tool is Spock, a people-search engine that uses multiple sources to gather as much information as possible about a particular person, indexing information found on social networks, new sites and other sources. If they find the person you are looking for, you can be notified by email or an RSS feed.
Another strong people-tracker is 123people, which also send out an alert by email you’re your search results change. This means that if you initial search turns up unsuccessful, 123people will keep your search data and alert you if any new relevant content is added to the web, leading you to your long lost brother or sister.
With the information capacity of the internet, finding long lost relatives is a lot easier than it was before, so be sure to take advantage of the power you have at your fingertips and at the click of a mouse button.