Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

If, like me, you’ve had many requests at the public service desk for ways to track down a long lost friend or relative, you may be interested in adding Pipl, a people search engine, to your bookmarks.  The interface is simple, and the info you get back depends on what was available.  You might even get thumbnail images of photos of the various people results, which makes determining "No, not that Bob Smith" a little easier.

I found that Phil Bradley had reviewed this site months ago on Search Engine Land and his review will be more thorough than anything I can write. But, here goes: a search for me by my maiden name alone (Sarah Houghton) in California yielded mostly results that were pointed to me (except for the grave and genealogy sites).  I tried a few other people with less of a prominent web presence and they also came up accurately, for the most part.  I think it’s worth using in those people searching cases…that + Reference USA residential and you should be good to go.