What is great about the search engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask, and any of the others is that they are getting better with each passing day. Each has their own way of searching, but they all do the same thing. An engine's job is to find what you want with as little sifting through web sites on your part as possible. You can find anything from the biography of George Washington to information on lady bugs by searching, and the same can be said when you want to find a phone number.

When you go to any search, you can start out by searching for the name of the person of which you are looking. When you do that, what happens next really depends on a few things. If you are looking for a common name, you may be overwhelmed. If you are looking for an uncommon or rare name, you may not spell it right. Both can mean you have to think of ways to narrow down your search criteria.

You can start by putting the name you are searching into quotes. When you search for John McGee, you are going to get results that have both names, but many may only have one, or both names may appear. You could be looking at John Smith, Teresa McGee in the results. None of those will do. To stop this from happening, use quotes around the name you are searching. "John McGee" will bring up only pages with those two names side by side in the text.

You don't have to give up if you do not find any information through the general search option. You can easily find things that will not come up there by going through some other options. Most have new things like news, images, shopping, blogs, etc. that can get you more information than the original and simple search. They may not come up with the phone number for your old friend, but you never know until you give it a go.

When you get information, you can call right away. However, because so many names are so common, you may want to be sure before you dial. To do that, you have to leave the search and to go a different source for information. Find a reverse phone lookup that tells you who owns a phone number. That can show you if you have the right number for the right person.