Email lookups?

I don’t know of a yellow pages for email exactly, but a couple of things that might help.

> If you know where they work, most places use a pattern for everyone, something like <first initial><lastname>@company.com or <first name>.<last name>@company.com – if you already have their name, usually a few tries will get something to them

> facebook (and other social sites) are great for this, you can look up the person and send them a message through the site, usually it’s connected to their email or at least they’ll be notified next time they log in

That info in confidential, and sites wont give it out.

I face this question all the time for work. Even the paid sites have emails less often than they have addresses and phone numbers.

You Google their name and variations of their name. You look at groups where they might belong and causes they might support and forums they might visit. You can simply call their work and say “I have an important email for XXXX, can you give me his email?” As @funkdaddy notes, if you find another person’s email at the same company, you can spot a pattern like FirstName.LastName@company.com.

It’s a matter of luck and creativity and persistence

Not really, no.

@Carol

Try this ====> Finger protocol it use to work on almost all e-mail servers, not true anymore.

@Tropical_Willie correct, finger protocol is normally blocked at mail servers and LDAP or AD is not open. You can write programs to hit email servers and see if they respond to an address or get an ndr for a failed attempt.

A person can have a work email, personal email and many of each.
This is not available and would run stale pretty quick anyway.
There is no centralized lookup or database to cross reference a persons name to email based on those search points.
Why are you looking for this? Normally if you want a persons email address or other information, you ask them.

Hi Willie,

I am looking for this since they already gave me their handwritten email and I can’t read three of the letters. I was trying to avoid calling them on the phone to say it was illegible.

Be that as it may, I find it odd that this information is so closely guarded given that I can look up anyone’s home phone number as well as their address in a large yellow book for free. In fact, one has to pay extra to stay out of that big yellow book.

Incidentally everyone, I did track the person down through multiple cross referencing. Thanks for your help y’all.

@Carol You are welcome,

SPAM is the biggest reason e-mails are restrict, followed by viruses being sent. The virus can infect the entire e-mail server and cause the system to fail.
Years ago I was able to use “Finger” to get my daughter’s e-mail at college ( she forgot to give to her mother )

@Carol most people would really rather not have their phone number published. How many listings have you seen to look up a persons cell phone number?
An email address is a piece of information that is controlled by the person themselves. Most people have multiple emails to help control this kind of unwanted exposure in the first place.
The age if information and easy access will continue to propogate this kind of lockdown.
Its not about being secret, its about protection from the unwanted.
Glad you found a way to get the address.

@blueiiznh You’re making me painfully aware of how much has changed in the past 20 years. I’m a tad older than you are (this is probably true no matter what you age) and I’m thinking about my “land line” in contrast to the digital world. I need to be defossilized.

I’m relieved about the control of my personal information, however, I must say, I’d rather have my email published than my actual address. I’m used to looking up somebody’s address or calling information. Just thinking this through, I’m really miffed at the (hard line) phone company for publishing my address. I wouldn’t mind them publishing my name and phone # in a big yellow book but I never gave them permission to publish my address….although perhaps I did a long time ago in some god forsaken contract.

@Tropical_Willie, I wasn’t thinking about the spam/virus situation. Yikes…..that would be awful.

I do think there should be be a main place in cyberspace where people who want their email address published can do so.

Thanks for your insights.