How to search for someone on facebook

Facebook is the most popular online social media and social networking service. The fact is, almost each aspect of our daily lives is mirrored on the Facebook. For some it is an addiction, while for some it is an obsession. Every user knows how to use Facebook to its full potential. Almost everybody using the Internet, barring few exceptional cases, have a Facebook profile. I have often heard people say how they traced their kindergarten friends on Facebook. Sounds so good and great, right? So how do others without a Facebook account trace their kindergarten mates on Facebook? There are a few options that help you search for someone on the Facebook without having to create an account to login.

Before you start the search you must remember that many members opt for the search privacy settings. In such cases the member’s details will not be displayed on the public search results page. It is a precautionary measure to prevent non Facebook members from accessing a member’s personal details.

Use Facebook Directory to Find Someone Without Login

Facebook Directory is very similar to the yellow pages because it lists all the people who are active Facebook users. You can search for people by typing their Facebook profile names in the search box or you can browse for people alphabetically by their names.  The directory also lists pages with maximum fans and places with maximum check-ins.

Using the URL – https://www.facebook.com/directory/  you can search for a person on the Facebook Directory without having to log in.

The search results page display the matching list of names that you are looking for.

How to search for someone on facebook

The People Search page on Facebook is its own official search page. You can type in the name of the person you are looking for and the search result displays a list of profiles with the same name.

How to search for someone on facebook

Identify the one that you are looking for and “happy connecting” with a long lost friend! However, if you have failed to find the person you were looking for, you can further narrow down the search. You can provide additional details like city, school, college etc. If you still did not succeed, then maybe the person has masked all personal details. So how about creating an account on Facebook and start looking again?

Social Searcher

Social Searcher is a free Social Media Search Engine that allows you to search for people and content in various social networks.  You can search for people without logging in or for publicly posted information by them on the various social networking sites including Facebook.

The search result displays the matching account names along with their recent activities from different social networking sites.

Whenever you ask a friend or a relative for a specific information, the immediate response is “Google it”. Similarly, you can use Google search to look for someone on the Facebook. For an accurate Google search result, provide the following search string: site: facebook.com Name.  Ensure that you replace the “Name” in the string with the actual person’s name you are looking for. The search result displays all the matching profiles. Clicking on a specific profile redirects you to the People Search page of Facebook.

Browser Add-Ons

Another popular search option to look for someone on Facebook is the Browser Add-Ons. There are quite a few add-ons available that you can download for free and search for people on Facebook without logging in. Listing all the add-ons in this article is not feasible. However, I will provide a brief introduction to the two most popular add-ons.

People Search Engine

It is Firefox add-on that you can use to search for people on Facebook without logging in.

It is a Chrome extension which can also be used to search for people on Facebook without logging in.

Using the methods above, you can find people, pages, group or other relevant details on Facebook. But to connect, share, comment etc. you have to create a Facebook account.

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The search box at the top of Facebook's site allows you to search for a specific person by name. You can use it to find people you're already friends with and you just want to go to their timelines, or to find people you aren’t friends with yet.

But basic search can be a little confusing because Facebook auto-completes the names that you type and assumes you’re trying to get to your friends’ timelines. If you’re the type of person who is used to pressing the Enter key to begin a search, this can send you to friends’ timelines when you meant to search for someone else named James, for example.

Read on to learn better strategies for finding people on Facebook.

You can also use the search box at the top of the site to find posts, pages, groups, events, and even things your friends have liked.

Two basic ways to use Search in Facebook

You’ll wind up using search two basic ways. The first way is if the name of the person you’re looking for (or at least someone with the same name) appears in the auto-complete menu. You can accomplish that sort of search following these steps:
  1. Begin typing the name you're looking for in the search box.

    Pay attention to the people who appear in the autocomplete menu. Facebook displays first your friends and then friends of friends. There’s a good chance that you may find the person you’re looking for in this menu.

  2. If you see the name in the autocomplete menu, use your mouse or arrow keys to highlight the person you're looking for.

  3. Click the name or press Enter.

    This brings you to the person's timeline, where you can verify that you know the person and add them as a friend.

Use "See More" for a further search
  1. Type the person's full name in the search box.

  2. Click See More at the bottom of the search menu.

    The search menu expands to reveal new options for search. So, if you type Jane Smith and then click See More, you can now either search People Named Jane Smith, Pages Named Jane Smith, or Places Named Jane Smith.

  3. Click the People Named option.

    A blue friend icon is next to this option. A search results page appears with larger previews of people’s profile pictures and timeline info. The right side of the page also has options for narrowing your search using fields such as Gender, Employer, Current City, and so on.