TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPICS: PEOPLE FINDERS / ONLINE PRIVACY

Today's TOURBUS is all about finding and connecting with people... whether they be long-lost friends, relatives, classmates, neighbors, co-workers or strangers. Also, learn how to find what information about YOU is publicly available online. Read on...

Research Your Family Tree

Roots, the 1977 television mini-series based on Alex Haley's book sparked a renewed interest in genealogy for many people. Back in the 70's, learning about your ancestors was a tedious job. But now, personal computers and the Internet make it MUCH easier. Here are some of the best online resources for doing genealogical research and charting your family tree...

http://askbobrankin.com/genealogy_research.html

Name and Address Search

A long-time reader recently wrote in and asked about online tools for finding people. Sherry from Birmingham said "I'm trying to reconnect with some old friends, but I'm having trouble finding their addresses and telephone numbers. Can you tell me where to look for good people finder tools that offer free online searches for telephone, email and address listings?"

In addition to residential and business listings for the USA and many other countries, you can do reverse lookups on phone numbers & street addresses. This means you can find a person's name and address if you know just their phone number. Or you could find someone's name and phone number if you know just the street address.

This article will tell you which people search directories I think are the best, and also what to do if you DON'T want to be found in an online directory.

http://www.askbobrankin.com/name_and_address_search.html

Is Privacy History?

What information about you is publicly available on the Web? In the past, only government agencies and businesses were able to access your personal information. Today, Internet search engines allow almost anyone to find information about friends, co-workers, job applicants, etc.

More and more info, such as property ownership, voter registration and court filings are being made available online. School, club and professional newsletters may unwittingly reveal things about you that you'd rather the whole world didn't know. What information that YOU thought was private is freely available online? Find out!

http://askbobrankin.com/is_privacy_history.html

Searching for Members in Myspace

The response to my previous articles about Myspace underscored to me that it's a hugely popular communication medium, so I'll be writing more articles to answer your Myspace questions. One reader wrote:

"I understand that once I'm logged in to Myspace I can search for people that meet certain criteria. For example, I want to locate guys over 40 within 60 miles of me that have "softball" as a searchable keyword. But HOW do I do this? I haven't been able to figure out this advanced search capability."

Finding people in Myspace is a little confusing, because there are at least FOUR ways to search for other Myspace members. This article will show you how to do basic and advanced searches, find classmates, and take advantage of the Affiliations for Networking feature.

http://askbobrankin.com/searching_in_myspace.html

That's all for now, see you next time! -- Bob Rankin