When The Info is Correct, but Over-abundant
Did you and your friend attend the same school or college together? Try to get information through the website of the school or college. If your friend is not listed anywhere on these sites, try the various class reunion websites, like classmates.
Is your friend a member of a professional organization that has a web presence? Has he or she written a book, an article, or been cited in one? More and more books and articles are published to the web every month.
If you are looking for a celebrity, a public figure, or someone who is extremely active on the internet, the above Step 1 and/or Step 2 are usually enough to find real information about that person. In fact, you’ll probably find yourself confronted with far too much information. You’ll need a way to winnow it down.
In the case of celebrities, a simple search on their names is likely to produce more results than you want. You’re likely to find fan sites, which can be excellent resources, but beware of the ones that offer nude pictures. Generally, the offers of clothed pictures are legitimate and the offers of nude ones are fakes, come-ons to try to get you to buy a subscription to a porn site. (In case you haven’t learned it already, the many varieties of sexual content on the internet are rarely offered free of charge).
To narrow it down, put in both the celebrity’s name and the name of a movie or song or book or TV show they’re associated with. Multiple titles are an even better way to find their sites. This works particularly well for authors. More