You can find that old friend from high school.

Every year when September rolls around, it brings back memories of my school years. Then the wondering starts: Whatever happened to so and so? Did those two ever get married? Is she still living in our old home town? Thanks to the Internet, I discovered that there is a way to find an old high school friend. I re-connected with a former friend, and we’ve remained in contact ever since. Here are the tools I found that helped the most.

 

Alumni Web Sites

 

We’ve all seen those annoying pop-up ads for Classmates.com. The ads may be a bother, but sites like Classmates and Reunion.com can be your biggest tools in locating an old acquaintance. Both of these sites allow you to register for free, but most of the juicy stuff will cost you a little bit. By juicy stuff, I mean the page that gives you current information on your ex or former best friend and even an e-mail address or two. Try these sites first; they can save you a lot of time if the person you’re looking for is already registered.

 

Online Phone Directories

 

Next you can try the online phone directory sites, like Whitepages.com. This can be hard, if you’re looking for a woman since her last name may have changed due to marriage. But it’s still worth a try. If the person you’re looking for has a listed phone number, you may be able to find it here. This won’t work if your friend has a very common name, unless you want to call up hundreds of John Smiths looking for just the right one.

 

Social Networking Sites

 

If you still haven’t had any luck, try searching on MySpace, Facebook and any other social-networking sites you can think of. Most people don’t use their last names on these sites, but you can search for your high school’s name, your home town and anything else that would connect you to your friend.

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Search Engines

 

The next thing you should try is the good old-fashioned search engines, like Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Again, this may be difficult if you’re looking for a woman. When I Google my name, many results comes up that give the searcher a way to contact me, like my blog or my profile page on ClubMom. If I search for my maiden name, none of the results have anything to do with me. This is likely because the Internet was in its infancy when I got married and my maiden name is much more common.

 

Don’t discount search engines, as Google is what I used to find an old high school friend. His business web site came up on the search result. I shot off an e-mail to the address listed, and we were reconnected ? just like that.

 

There are so many ways to search for people online; we live in a connected time. Can you imagine trying to find someone 15 years ago? Impossible. Good luck, and happy searching.