As time passes, it is common to lose touch with friends and no longer have the person's telephone number when you need it. Even if you do communicate often, phone numbers change, and you might not have the most recent information. Fortunately, you have the ability to find phone numbers using the Internet. As long as you have the correct spelling of your friend's first and last name and ideally his location, you have the ability to look up someone's phone number.
Point your browser to a free people search website like AnyWho, PhoneNumber.com, 411.com, ZabaSearch or WhitePages (see Resources).
Locate the section where you enter the person's name on the provider page. On AnyWho, this is under "Find A Person," on PhoneNumber.com, it's under "Phone Directory," on 411.com, it's under "People Search," with ZabaSearch, it's under "People Search by Name," and with WhitePages, it's under "Find People."
Type in the friend's information in the fields provided. Enter at least a last name and a first initial, along with a city, state and/or ZIP code. The more data you have, the easier it is to locate the person.
Click the "Find," "Search" or "Free People Search" buttons to bring up the results. Besides the phone number, the provider sites also bring up the person's address, age and other known relatives, as available.
- If you cannot locate your friend's telephone number, it is possible that the person has a blocked number or is taking other privacy measures to keep her information private.
- Try entering the person's name directly in a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo!, to see if they come up in a business or social networking page.
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