The great (and scary) thing about the internet

I was reminiscing about the old college days and people I had lost touch with or just didn't know where they ended up.  One friend in particular popped out because I thought chances are she was living in the same part of the country where she grew up and it just so happens I now live in that part of the country too.  Wouldn't that be a hoot if we lived close to each other?!?!?

I decided to use this handy-dandy tool called the "internet" to see if I could track her down.  Here's what I had (all info has been changed to protect the unintenionally easy-to-find):

• her first and last name at it was college
• her boyfriend's first name that she was EXCEPTIONALLY devoted to in college.  (he did not attend out school)
• the general area of where she grew up  (I was pretty sure I had it narrowed down to a state or two.)

This is really not that much info.  We lost touch before we even graduated so I wasn't even sure if she was still in love with "Fred", much less if she actually ended up marrying him.  (although she professed over and over again she would.)

In google I searched both her first and last name as well as her nickname.   ("Elizabeth" and "Beth")  I had to go through a few pages until I found something that resembled my friend based on dates, etc.  In less than 2 minutes I found her on classmates.com.  The location of the high school and the dates of attendance were spot on.

Of course I couldn't see anything about her on there but I got her married last name.  So I search it.  I didn't get a lot that looked relavant.  On a whim I decided to search "Fred" + her married name.  I found his name on a page from his college alma matter that kept updates of alumni and their profession.  As it turned out, he is a school administrator in the area in which I expected her to be.

I then searched her first and last (married) name again with the city and state and found her name pop up on someone's FB friend list.  I went to this strangers page.  Although I couldn't see any of her information I was able to search all her friends.  Sure enough, I found my friend.

I did all this in less than 10 minutes.  With only three pieces of (dubious) information.

If I can do that just imagine what someone could do if they really wanted to find you with sinister intentions. 

Just sayin'

So on the positive side I (hopefuly) reconnected with a friend. (I just friended her a few minutes ago and she hasn't yet accepted.)  On the negative side I found someone with whom I lost contact with OVER 10 years ago in less than 10 minutes.

Kinda scary.  And now she probably thinks I'm a stalker...