# Best (free) way to find old friends? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474 "2003-05-06T19:02:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/1 "2003-05-06T19:02:42Z")
I’m just curious to know if anyone knows of any good sites/message boards specifically geared towards finding old friends. I’m registered with [Classmates.com](http://Classmates.com), but consider it a complete ripoff because of the restrictions placed on free accounts. I’ve also registered to some sites specifically for military brats, but other than that I don’t know where to start. I’d like to hear from any of my old friends, but I just don’t know if there are other sites out there I could be checking. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/2 "2003-05-06T21:43:57Z")
Can’t help with the message board question, but I found quite a few old friends on the website of my former High School, believe it or not. They have an alumni page where you can make your email address available to others. I’d start by finding out if your HS has one. You’ve mentioned being a military brat, though, so I assume you’d have at least a couple to track down. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/3 "2003-05-06T22:04:53Z")
A friend of a friend has just set up a new site called Where Are You Now ([www.wayn.net](http://www.wayn.net), there’s a New Zealand one at www.wayn.nz) which is really aimed at backpackers and so on. The idea is that you sign up and can keep in contact with people you met on your travels, and also with people back home. Registration is free for May. Just thought I’d throw that out there. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/4 "2003-05-06T22:49:03Z")
Best (free) way to find old friends? Win the lottery. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/5 "2003-05-06T23:00:23Z")
The best all-purpose, one-stop people search page I’ve ever found and used is this: [http://searchenginez.com/](http://searchenginez.com/) Gives an exhaustive sellection of free search resources, plus a option to use more powerful pay services when the free ones hit a wall. It seems that this guy went to a LOT of trouble. God bless him. ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/6 "2003-05-07T00:56:49Z")
[http://www.theultimates.com/white](http://www.theultimates.com/white) Also try Google ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/7 "2003-05-07T15:10:23Z")
Yeah, I just put their name with quotes around it in Google. Also phone books work great if your library has books by city/state (ours does). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/8 "2003-05-08T00:56:21Z")
I used [url= ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/9 "2003-05-08T00:58:17Z")
sorry. I used [this site](http://whowhere.lycos.com) to find an old friend from junior high. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/10 "2003-05-08T01:19:23Z")
The site [www.ussearch.com](http://www.ussearch.com) has services for a fee, but you can do basic searches for free. You need the person’s name and their approximate age and it will give you their state and city. It is spookily accurate (it knows where I live, and how old I am). Then you can look the person up in the online white pages (Yahoo has some) and there you are. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-free-way-to-find-old-friends/173474/11 "2003-05-08T01:20:42Z")
I see **twickster** ’s whowhere link is powered by [ussearch.com](http://ussearch.com), which is the one I mentioned.