Your search for long-lost friends and family members on the Internet can be as easy as your friend or family member wants it to be for you. The more effort they put into remaining invisible, the harder and longer it will take you to find them. The more visible or transparent he or she is on the Internet, the easier it will be to find him or her.

Simple Googling will go the trick

If your friend or family member has a website or uses the Internet to write blog entries or has an online photo album, you can usually find them using conventional search engines - for example, www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.aol.com, www.dogpile.com, etc. As long as they have their names on their websites, blogs or photo albums, the search engines will pick them up and produce the list of links for you to browse through.

However, you can only use this method to find long-lost friends and family members if they have an online presence. If they don't, you're probably not going to find them using search engines. Without websites, information or blogs, your friend or family member is as invisible to the search engine as they are to you.

Finding people through their business

If you know the name of the company that your family or friend works in, what you can do is to trace the company's information or website. And once you find the telephone number or email of the company, give them a ring or send them an email. Usually the HR department may be able to lend you a helping hand. However, it all depends on the level of security that the company adopts. If they prefer to keep the identity and information of their staff private and confidential, there really is nothing else you can do except to personally visit the company's office.

Tracing by location through directories

One of the most popular and convenient ways of finding family and friends online is by using online directories and tracing the telephone numbers or addresses of the family or friend.

Searching for family or friend through their email address

What happens if the family or friend is no longer using his or her email address and you don't have the address? What you can do is to make a search using the email address and type it into searches like www.infospaceinc.com. InfoSpace lets you find family and friends by narrowing the search down by specifying the location and telephone number of that person too.

Finding family and friends by digging underground

If your friend or family member wants to stay hidden, there's still one last thing you can do before you give up. Try using an online detective to find your family and friend! It sounds sneaky and illegal, but it's actually a legitimate way of finding friends and family. What these online detectives will do is to search through the web, public records, property registration records, arrest records, bankruptcy files, birth registration, childcare and nanny screening records, judgments, court files, unlisted phone numbers and address, and lots more!