It's true that the Net is bringing together thousands of people who have lost touch over the years. The searchability of the Internet allows it to act as a sort of global phone book, with contact information for millions of people worldwide.

The first place to explore is some kind of national White Page listing (we'll assume your far-flung friend is in the U.S.). Check out the Yahoo! People Search, which allows you to search for email addresses and phone numbers. There's also an advanced search form that lets you specifically look for old friends, giving you the option of including keywords targeted towards high school, college, military service, location or other common connections.

If the People Search comes up empty, the next step is to run a full Web search. Use your favorite search engine or navigation site and type in your friend's name. You may want to enclose the name in quotes (e.g., "John Smith"), as this will help some search engines eliminate extraneous matches. If you're lucky, and the name you're looking for is suitably unique, you'll find online references to your old buddy. You may not turn up anything as concrete as an address or a phone number, but with a little additional detective work you'll be well on the way to a reunion.

Finally, if your search strikes out, check out the Web sites of schools and organizations that your friend is affiliated with. Many high schools and colleges maintain flourishing alumni directories and online message boards.

Featured find-an-old friend resources

Planet Alumni - sit back and enjoy the most user-friendly online community technology empowering thousands of schools and organizations. We’ll help you find old friends and give you great ways to stay connected. Find loads of information on your schools, reunions, classmates and more. In addition to our 90,000 public communities, we license our Custom Community technology solutions to member organizations including alumni associations, non-profit organizations, military associations and businesses.

   Visit their web site: PlanetAlumni.com

HighSchoolAlumni.com - the second largest High School friends finder site, reconnecting tens of thousands of old friends every day! Our members are registered for their High School by their graduation year, so old chums are easy to find. We have more than 5 million old friends looking to reconnect; your visitors, members and/or customers will not be disappointed!

   Visit their web site: HighSchoolAlumni.com

ClassMates.Com - the largest directory of contact information for high school alumni, offers visitors a quickly-expanding database of registered alumni that includes e-mail and postal addresses, biographies, and other information that registrants may include. The site also offers high school reunion information and other useful people-finding services.

   Visit their web site: ClassMates.Com

Other leading general people finders

Yahoo People Search
BigFoot
Switchboard
Populus People Locator
Internet Address Finder
Infospace People Search
WhoWhere People Finder
The World Pages
World Email Directory
Info USA
USSearch
World Alumni Net

Military related people finders

American Veteran Search
Military USA.com
No-Quarter Link
State Level Lists of Casualties--Korea and VietNam
American War Library
WWII Veteran's Forum
US Military Veteran Locator

-- Bryan