Free Online Resources for Backgrounds, Phone Numbers, Professional Licensure and Real-Time Social Media

Updated June 16, 2012

Here’s a few, free online look-ups for background information, reverse phone number look-ups, professional licensure and real-time social media.

Find online information about a person. Because currently the most comprehensive, public search engine is Google, use it to find online information about an individual. Type the person’s name and any other identifying information, such as “Sally Smith watercolor artist”, in the Google browser, press the “Search” button and view the results, which show blogs, websites and other online sources in which that name and information displays.

Conduct a reverse phone number search. If an unknown phone number shows up on your caller ID, it’s easy to run a free reverse phone number search using Google. Enter the phone number in the format 123-456-5555 in the Google browser, and press the “Search” button. Google displays all online sources that contain that phone number, such as in blogs, websites, online resumes and online ads.

Verify someone’s professional license. BRB Publications offers a free online database to verify professional licenses by state. Go to Verifyprolicense.com, select a state, select the agency and follow the instructions.

Conduct a real-time social media search. Socialmention is a real-time search engine that examines online social media such as blogs, events, images, news, video and social networking sites. Conduct a search with any identifier, such as a name, phone number, email address, username.

Have a great weekend, Writing PIs

Related articles

• The Uses Of Reverse Phone Lookup On The Net. (boldstate.com)

Free Online Searches

We’re like anybody else when it comes to spending money–we prefer the free stuff before we start shelling out the bucks.  Time to revisit some of our favorite, free public online searches.

Google.  Let’s face it, it’s becoming a Google World. It’s become the most comprehensive public search engine around, so we always go to it first when starting searches.  Enter information in the Google browser window, press the “Search Google” button and review the results. We once found a person who’d been “on the run” by an ad they placed in craigslist–they listed their location and phone number in the ad! And we found them by running the phone number in Google. If you want to read more about Google and its many search features, check out Googleguide.com.

Pipl.  This search engines prides itself on being a deep web search engine.  We like it ’cause it’s free and comprehensive and checks all kinds of places (archives, photographs, blog posts, etc.). Maybe someday Pipl will charge for its searches, but for now it’s still free.

123people. Another deep web search engine. After you enter a person’s name and city, all kinds of search results display. Side-step the ads that want to charge you money for additional searches and check the actual search results, such as the email addresses found for the person, phone number listings, web links, even where the person has registered their “wish lists” with amazon. 

Have a great week, Writing PIs