I'm not a private investigator, but I'd like to believe that I could be one.
My first foray into intensive online searches was in college, when one of my professor gave the class a list of tricky questions (the one that comes to mind is, "What is that smell when it rains?" but there were other more concrete questions, like questions about female pilots during WWII and questions about newsworthy events in the 20s) and set us loose in the library to find as many (accurate) answers as we could.
That day, I developed a deep and personal love for Google, and that love has continued to grow over the years.
I find that my online searching skills have practical purposes. My friend TA wanted to catch up with an old friend from high school but knew only his name and that he might be a teacher. I found the guy's email address online, and they were able to catch up.
Now before you think that I'm a borderline cyber-stalker, I need to point out that I use my powers for good. Or at least for curiosity. Don't you ever wonder, "Gee, I wonder where so-and-so is now--I wonder what they're up to?" A lot of times, Google knows.
But sometimes Google doesn't know, or it gives you search results for other people with the same name. If you don't have additional filtering criteria, you're out of luck.
Or are you? Recently, I discovered another tool to add to my PI arsenal--www.theknot.com. You can type in someone's first and last names and find out if they registered at any affiliated stores. The listings sometimes include the state in which their wedding took (or will take) place, and that information is very helpful for narrowing down search results when a person has a common name. Sometimes the listing also has the person's wedding date.
A couple weeks ago, my friend LS and I were talking about a guy we used to work with--we heard he got engaged but didn't know anything else. Naturally, I turned to the knot, and I found out that his wedding was in 10 days! Quelle coincidence! I emailed over my congrats and shared my own happy news with him.
So if you find yourself bored, fear not--entertainment awaits at the knot.
