How are you searching for people/businesses in the WWW?
 

A fundamental part of doing business on the WWW is checking for addresses of prospective clients. Most sites are now asking for a fee to release that information. Which search engine is everyone using that gives accurate but yet FREE results? What about reverse phone lookups?

Thanks.

anywho.com

I do reverse lookups on www.whitepages.com.

Thanks guys! :)

Regards.

I use to do reverse lookups, but it seems that the number portability law they passed (primarily, because of cell phones) has given them an excuse to say "due to number portability we do not know who this belongs to, as it can change, but it is pacific bell, from Fresno, CA" or something similar, I can't remember exactly. I even tried to do it with a couple numbers of two different friends who have had the same numbers, at the same address' for 30 years and it said the same thing. Of course there is also a link to pay and find out additional info, freakin scammers.

Dan,

Exactly what information is it that you are looking for? 'Cold clients' who you may want contact and offer your product to? Or reference information for prospects that have already contacted you?

Vickie

Vickie,

It would be the second.

Regards,

ok Dan,

Well, without knowing all of the details...
Much of your search would depend on if it is an individual or an actual company... and if you have suspicions or not. :)

"Individual" searches for usually involve email, phone # and physical address verification.
- Yahoo, hotmail and many other free email addresses do have member areas and also involve registration information in order to obtain the email account. Those services that also offer a classified section get a quick username search.
- home accounts such as whoareyou@verizon.net get flipped to verizon.net/~whoareyou or if there is a member listing through the hosting company, I search it.
- In all cases, I email the address for a response to be sure it is actively checked by the individual.
Ususally, I manage to get the persons full name and/or phone # through the email search. Many times Im lucky and the person has a classified ad listed with their contact #.

Then I take what I have found over to the whitepages online. Run the info through and shoot for an address. You'll end up with more than 1 most likely - but if you dial (the area code) 555-1212 and ask for the persons phone # or address, Information will have the most recent one listed in their files since its run by the local phone company and the bills must be sent.

If they want to pay by check or $ order they MUST clear, all credit cards MUST be accompanied by the actual billing address (my CPS will verify this for me) and paypal orders only get sent to verified addresses with a signature delivery confirmation.
~Since I have lizards and you work with snakes the shipping procedures would be a bit different...

"Company" searches follow the same routine mostly. A few differences are :

- Many companies have web sites that can be searched through whois.com You can get all of the contact info on the WhoIs Lookup at the bottom of the page.
- A yellow pages catagory search will bring up others in the same business that you can always make a quick call to for references. Most pet stores will share their information/opinions about the wholesalers they deal with.
- Privately ask other breeders if they have dealt with the company... or outright ask the company for references.

~Always start with a pre-paid order. Establish a working relationship with the company in question before setting up a 'net 10 day' or whatever account.
(QuickBooks offers a credit check as part of their program - though Ive never used it and dont know the details)

While none of the above information will guarantee that everything will go smoothly, its usually makes me feel a bit better when the ground feels a bit shaky.

Hope this helps,
Vickie

ps - pm me if its a company and Ill help if I can.

I use www.dogpile.com . It is a multifunctional search engine and I rely on it heavily. From it I get addresses, telephone numbers, maps, general and specific search information. I also have a tendency to just type in a persons name and the city/state they are supposed to live in. When I do it on me my address and phone number show up ON the search engine itself as a white page listing. Try it, it's fun.

Oh, you can do reverse lookups on it too, but as was mentioned before, they are unreliable.

I can't find it right now, but there was also a site that will give you a persons neighbors names, addresses, and phone numbers. I thought the dogpile USED to provide that.

what about zip code?