5 Best Tips for Finding People With Google

Use Google Search to Find a Phone Number

You can use Google to find phone numbers, both business and residential numbers. Simply visit Google and type in the name of the person or business, along with any other information that might be helpful, and sift through the results to see if the phone number has been listed anywhere on the web.

A reverse phone number lookup is possible, too. Using Google as a reverse number search tool is helpful if you already know the phone number, but you're not sure who owns it. You might do a reverse number lookup on Google if you don't recognize a caller.

Put Quotes Around Someone's Name

Quotation marks let you search for a specific phrase on Google, so using them around a first and last name can help narrow down your person search.

For example, looking up the name John Smith reveals over 2 billion results, but surrounding the name in quotes like "John Smith", shows a mere 32 million. Obviously, several million results aren't ideal, but it's definitely better than billions of results.

The reason this works is that when looking for John Smith without quotes, Google finds all results that include both names. Using quotes make the search a single item, meaning that Google will only show results that have the name John next to Smith.

In addition, if you know where the person lives or works, or what clubs/organizations, etc., that they're associated with, you can try a variety of different combinations:

Track Someone With Google Alerts

If you want to stay informed of someone's doings via the web, Google Alerts is a great place to start. All you have to do is enter the search term you want alerted about, describe how often you want the emails, and then wait for a message.

For example, maybe you want to monitor the entire web for any new instances of someone's email address, address, or a combination of multiple search terms, like this:

This "people finder" method is super helpful but, unfortunately, only works if the person or business has a presence online. In other words, you can't use Google Alerts to know when your daughter posts something on her X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook page.

Search for People With Google Images

Another way to find people with a Google search is to use Google Images. Many people upload photos and other images to the web, most of which is indexed by Google and viewable via a Google Images search.

To find someone on Google Images, just type their name as a jumping-off point. The Tools option lets you filter the results by size, color, type, and time uploaded, so if you know any of those details, you'll have better luck finding the person.

Another way to use Google Images to do a free people search is to start with an image you already have of the person. Maybe it's their social media profile image or something they texted you.

Visit Google Images and select the camera icon to get started with a reverse image search. A reverse image search on Google works from mobile devices, too.