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Researching Online

The internet can really help you track down that elusive contributor - as long as you know how to look, as Paul Myers explains.

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As an investigative researcher, I often find myself trying to trace people and find out more about their interests, activities and involvements. The advent of the Internet, electronic databases, fast searching and easy cross-referencing has revolutionised this.

For example, if I'm investigating John Smith, an alleged criminal from Norwich, it's worth me visiting an online electoral role like Cameo. This reveals personal details like the names of family members and neighbours (useful as potential interviewees).

More profile information may be found in local and national newspaper searches, online phone books, message boards, the companies house website and even Friends Reunited, but wherever I look, I gather useful extra keywords as I go. The names of his family, the university he went to, causes he is involved with and even the football team he supports can all help my investigation by narrowing down my searches.

The email trail

His email address is perhaps the most powerful clue you can find. There's every chance that John Smith himself has an online presence, but whilst there may be millions of John Smiths on Google, only one of them will have the email address johncanaries6578@yahoo.com.

Not many people think of putting an email address into Google's search box, but as it is unique to the individual it will produce anything they have sent to online message boards, email lists and communities they belong to. If I find nothing for this particular email address I will try searching for the 'user name' on its own as there's every chance he may also have registered johncanaries6578@hotmail.com or johncanaries6578@aol.com.

It is easily possible that any personal keywords I find, together with the lateral thinking and sheer persistence I use in my searches, will produce the exclusive information that makes it all worthwhile.

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Paul Myers specialises in internet research and teaches web page design and image production. Paul writes for bbc.co.uk and regularly produces internet live chat shows with guests as diverse as Ken Livingstone and Westlife. He also acts as an online research consultant for Watchdog.

Improve your research skills:

Investigative Research on the Net Part 1
Investigative Research on the Net Part 2