How to Google a Person

• by Darcy Logan

Introduction

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Danny Sullivan)
  Google is more than a search engine; it is also a verb. According to Merriam-Webster, Google means "to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web"¹ Googling a person is easy if they happen to have a unique name, such as Barack Obama, but what if you are trying to find information about a Richard Davis or a Linda Taylor. Type in those words and you find yourself faced with millions of web pages, 99.9% of them unrelated to your search. That's when you need to narrow your search using a few basic tools.

Use Quotations

• When you place words in quotes, you are telling Google to search for that exact phrase.² Google suggests this as the best way to search for a person.³

• For example, if you were looking for Lynda Richards you would enter the search: "Lynda Richards"
  1. You are only going to get pages that have the phrase Lynda Richards. If a page has written the name as Richards, Lynda Google will not include it.
  2. It will also exclude all the pages that have Lynda Phillips and Bob Richards on it but no Lynda Richards.

Google All Names

• Don't forget to add middle names, middle initials, maiden names and married names. For example, if Lynda Ann Richards married Mark Snyder, you would want to do the following searches:
  1. "Lynda Richards"
  2. "Lynda Ann Richards"
  3. "Lynda A. Richards"
  4. "Lynda Snyder"
  5. "Lynda Richards Snyder"
  6. "Lynda Ann Snyder"
  7. "Lynda A. Snyder"
  8. "Mrs. Mark Snyder"
• If you are looking for someone who has a hyphenated name, you don't need to do both a search with and without the hyphen. Google will automatically search for the term both ways.⁴

Google Using Nicknames and Diminutives

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Stuart Frisby)
  You may want to do a search using the person's nickname or diminutive.

1. A diminutive is a shortened version of a name. Beth, Liz and Liza are all diminutives of the name Elizabeth.
2. If you are doing a genealogy search, you should realize that diminutives and nicknames have changed.⁵
3. Here are some sources for both past and current diminutives:
   1. Connecticut State Library: A Listing Of Some 18th and 19th Century Nicknames
   2. About.com: Common Nicknames & Their Given Name Equivalents
   3. TNGenWeb.org: Names and Naming Traditions
   4. Babies Online: Baby Name Index
   5. Anne Johnston: Diminutives and Alternative Names for the Most Common English Christian Names
   6. Edgar's Name Pages: Nicknames

Use the + Operator

• Placing a plus sign (+) in front of a word tells Google that the word or phrase is essential and it must be included in the search.⁶ A normal search in Google searches for all the words in your query but may include results that exclude one or more of those words.

1. An example of how to insert a plus sign: +Lynda Ann +Richards
   • That tells Google that Lynda and Richards must be on the page but Ann does not need to be.
2. You can also do this with phrases you typed in quotes.⁴ Simply type the plus sign before the quotes: +"Lynda Ann" Richards
   • Notice that there is no space between the plus sign and the word or quotes.

Use the - Operator

• When you type a minus sign (-) before a word or phrase, you are telling Google not to include that word or phrase.²

1. The minus sign works exactly the same way the plus sign does, but in reverse.
2. This is helpful if, after your initial search, you noticed there was another Lynda Richards who bred dogs, but your Lynda Richards hates dogs.
   1. Type in: Lynda Richards -dog
   2. Google will exclude any pages that have the word dog (as well as any variations of the word dog) from your search results.⁴
3. You can use both the plus and minus sign in the same search.

Use the OR Operator

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Matt McGee)
  Type in OR (in capital letters) between two words, to tell Google that either one word or another is acceptable.⁷

1. For example, going back to Lynda, you could do a search by typing in: Lynda Richards OR Snyder
   • That will search for all pages that have Lynda and either Richard or Snyder on them.
2. This search will not work if you type in: Lynda Richards OR Lynda Snyder
   • That search looks for pages with the words Lynda, Richards or Lynda, and Snyder.
3. To do a search for two different terms, you need to include both phrases in quotes.⁸
   • For example, type in: "Lynda Richards" OR "Lynda Snyder"

Add More Information

• When you are getting too many results back from your Google search, you need to add more information to weed out all the sites that don't relate to the person you are Googling.

1. The trick is to think about things that might be included in a newsletter, newspaper article or blog.
2. Some things you might consider adding to your searches:
   1. Occupation.
   2. Hometown or current city.
   3. Address.
   4. Parent's names.
   5. Husband or wife's name.
   6. Children's names.
   7. School, college or university name.⁹

Google Within a Site

• Although many sites include a search engine (usually Google), you can use Google to search a website if you include add site: before the top domain name.¹⁰

1. For example, to search for all the other Mahalo pages written by the same author as this one, you would type in: Darcy Logan site:mahalo.com
   • Notice there is a colon (:) after the word site.
2. This can be handy if you want to search a school's or university's website for information about a person.
3. You can also search only for one type of site such as only sites that end in ".com" by typing in: Darcy Logan site:com

Google Within a Date Range

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Mykl Roventine)
  Google will also allow you to search for information within dates.

1. All you need to do is type in the two dates separated by two periods.
2. For example, if I wanted to find out information on someone that was born in 1971, I might exclude all dates before that by typing in: Lynda Richards 1971..2008
3. This will list pages with a date on them before listing pages without dates.

Google a Specific Site or Country

• You can limit Google results to only those in a specific country or language.¹¹

• Go to Language Tools or click on "Language Tools" located next to the Google search bar.
  1. To change the language, scroll down the page until you find the section that says "Use the Google Interface in Your Language" and click the language of your choice.
  2. To visit your local Google search engine, scroll down the page until you see the section that says "Visit Google's Site in Your Local Domain" and click the country of your choice.

Search the Google Phonebook

• Google is also part phonebook. You can search Google specifically for a phone number or address by typing in phonebook:, bphonebook: (for businesses) or rphonebook:(for residential listings) and then the following:¹²
  1. first name/initial, last name, city, state (optional)
  2. first name/initial, last name, state
  3. first name/initial, last name, area code
  4. first name/initial, last name, zip code
  5. last name, city, state
  6. last name, zip code

• For these searches you can have a space after the colon (:). It can also do a reverse number look-up if you type in the phone number.¹² Here are a few examples of searches:
  1. phonebook: Lynda Richards, Minneapolis
  2. rphonebook: Lynda Richards 507
  3. phonebook: 507 555 1234
  4. bphonebook: Pizza Hut 56013

Google Specific Types of Websites

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Brian Sawyer)
  Google has special search engines that allow you to search for specific items on the web such as blogs, images, news reports, scholarly papers and video. Here are direct links to those pages:
  1. Google Blog Search¹³
  2. Google Image Search¹⁴
  3. Google News Search¹⁵
  4. Google Scholar Search (Academic Papers)¹⁶
  5. Google Video Search¹⁷

• Google also has a special search engines designed to search within universities' websites located at Google's University Search. ¹⁸

Conclusion

• Now that you know how to use Google, you might want to go out and find your Google twin, or someone out there who happens to have the same name as you.¹⁹ You might also consider trying to do your family tree. You could also find out more about your friends and neighbors. The possibilities are endless.

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References for How To Google a Person

1. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: Google
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Google Web Search Help Center: The Essentials of Google Search
3. ↑ Google Web Search Help Center: Search Basics : Finding People
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Google Tutor: Building A Basic Search Query
5. ↑ About.com: Nicknames in Your Family Tree 
6. ↑ Google: Google Features
7. ↑ Google Web Search Help Center: Advanced Search Made Easy
8. ↑ Google Tutor:Adding Basic Operators
9. ↑ Poynter Online: Going Beyond Google (May. 21, 2003)
10. ↑ Google Help Center: Advanced Operators
11. ↑ Google Web Search Help Center: Advanced Search Tips : Country or Domain Search
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} About.com: Google Phone Number Search  
13. ↑ Google.com: Google Blog Search
14. ↑ Google.com: Google Image Search
15. ↑ Google.com: Google News Search
16. ↑ Google.com: Google Scholar Search
17. ↑ Google.com: Google Video Search
18. ↑ Google.com: Google's University Search
19. ↑ Official Site: Google Me The Movie