There are a number of third party services for finding contact information online. Most of the time they charge. Doing it the free way typically means physically visiting a county government office and searching on a public terminal, or making a public records request, which isn’t always feasible. Therefore, we’ll suggest a few services but do not take these as endorsements. Services change all the time.
As a journalist, please practice ethical research:
- Do not stalk people.
- Do not pretend to be someone you’re not (don’t use fake accounts) unless authorized by your editors/professors.
- Always represent yourself as a journalist, and be transparent with the fact you’re doing a story that may be published.
- Practice ethical reporting. Make good choices.
Google Search Operators
You can use Google Advanced search to narrow or filter your Google Search results.
https://google.com/advanced_search
Another way is to use search operators. These are syntax mechanisms to do the same thing directly in a search field.
Put an exact phrase in quotes:
“Berkeley Journalism”
Search for results that are only restricted to a single domain.
chevron site:richmond.ca.us
Find by filetype:
chevron site:tombutt.com filetype:pdf
Filter out certain results by using the minus symbol before words.
Richmond -VA -virginia school district
Look up multiple other advanced search operators.
Finding Email Addresses
There are a number of third party services for finding email addresses.
Hunter.io
VoilaNorbert.com
RocketReach.com
Phonebook.cz
Email-checker.net
Dehashed.com
haveibeenpwned.com
whatsmyname.app
ThatsThem.com
Spokeo.com
Whitepages.com
TruePeopleSearch.com
Webmii.com
VoterRecords.com
This tutorial was written by Jeremy Rue.
Copyright UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism . Any code samples in these tutorials are provided under the MIT License
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THIS PAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE INFORMATION IN THIS PAGE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THIS INFORMATION.