untangling_the_web

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Recommended People Search Resources
There is no Internet equivalent to the Rosetta Stone for finding people. Searchers
need a good set of bookmarks that include at least the following sites.
ICQ User Directory
http://people.icq.com/whitepaqes/
Unlike AOL's AIM instant messaging system directory, ICO's phone and email
directory is publicly available, listing more than 120 million users in over 245
countries. The ICO User Directory's Advanced People Search is impressive. You
can search on as few or as many fields-including first/last name, nickname, email
address, language, phone number, country, occupation, etc.-as you wish. While
there are several interfaces to ICO search (depending on whether you want to
search by email address or phone number, for example), I recommend starting with
the main People Search page and then going to the Advanced People Search for
more options.
Google Groups
http://qroups.gooqle.com/
Not only is Google Groups much more user friendly than the MIT USENET interface,
it is also current, including postings in almost real time. Google Groups can be
searched in many ways, but for the purpose of locating people, the Author search is
exceptionally valuable. However, keep in mind that anyone can make up an alias,
change addresses, and use other people's email, so USENET postings are of real
but limited value. Also remember that USENET postings are one of the places where
a sort by date works and makes sense because all newsgroup postings are
date/time stamped. There are three basic ways to run an Author search (important
note: Google Groups now obscures the userid in email addresses by inserting
an ellipsis (...) for privacy reasons; however, many obscured addresses can be
easily guessed). However, if you know the author's full email address, you can
use search syntax in the main Groups & Groups Beta query screen-[author:email
address]. This will return all the postings associated with that email address.
Even if you do not know the full email address, you can still see all the posting
associated with one email address (these instructions apply to Google Groups Beta):
o
o
o
While viewing a specific posting, click on "More options" (next to the
date);
Select "View profile" next the author's From address;
Google will automatically search for and display every posting from a
particular address.
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