The second best people search engine is Facebook. Facebook is the world’s largest social network. It has over a billion users, and it continues to grow.
The numbers are even more staggering when you consider that the vast majority of Facebook users live in developed countries. About 20% of the world’s population lives in a developed country and the other 80% live in emerging market countries. Doing the math, this means that somewhere around one out of every three or four people in the developed world has a Facebook account. That is truly staggering and it is the main reason why Facebook should definitely be on your list of sites to search when looking for a person.
Fortunately, Facebook has a dedicated people search engine that you can use for free even if you do not have a Facebook account. Simply go to the Facebook People Search page, as shown below. You can search for a person by either typing in their full name (highlighted in red) or by browsing by last name (highlighted in green).
There are two limitations to the Facebook people search page. First, full name searches do not accept wildcards (such “?” or “*”) or partial names. Instead, you have to scroll through long lists of last names.
The second shortcoming of Facebook people searching is that you sometimes need to have a Facebook account to see all the information about an individual. People who are not on Facebook are unlikely to set one up just to use it to find a long-lost relative. Nevertheless, you should be able to learn enough from a Facebook public profile to get pointed in the right direction.
