I lost touch with many of my high school and college classmates when I moved cross country. After 30 years it seemed a little strange to begin feeling nostalgic for those carefree days but I started feeling the tug anyway. It is not that easy to dismiss the feeling when you are staring at your high school year book. I decided to try an experiment.As an author I've had fun doing searches on my name to see how I'm represented on the Internet; now I was intrigued about the possibility of finding people I have not seen in over 30 years. There are many public records databases available on the Web although it is very difficult to navigate around these sources.A few businesses have been doing a lot of work connecting the dots among the vast resources now on the Internet and many large companies have been using these resources to target their marketing efforts to laser-like focus. Now you have the ability to access the same information that multimillion dollar corporations do. Here is how you can find anyone on the Internet with a few keystrokes.You can start a people search by going to the large social network sites. If the person in likely to have an email address or web page, you can simply start with a Google search. You'd be surprised by the number of friends I've found by just doing a regular name search.What if the person you are looking for is not in the search engines? That's where the specialized sites come in. I was able to do a search for a long time friend across the country and find his current address and place of employment in the span of a Pepsi commercial (No kidding; I got it before the commercial was ended.)If your intended search is known only by her maiden name, the process is just as simple. I was able to enter the name of my old flame from grammar school, search the listings by maiden name and for the price of a bottle of soda, obtain her correct address, phone number and email address.The thought of being able to pinpoint anyone within 30 seconds may sound scary but we are living in interesting times. If you are renting to someone or looking for a roommate, this type of service can be literally a life saver.Not only was I able to get detailed information on my friends online, with an extra click I had access to any criminal record or other personal information that is of public record. These things are completely legal. If you are in a big city and dating a new person, take a look at their background after the first or second date. If you feel that there is something off kilter in his story, all the more reason to do a quick search to review his background and decide if it is your imagination. People searches can be very useful.