You may want or need to contact someone via e-mail but discover you don't have his e-mail address and no one else you know has it either. While there is not a universal directory for e-mail addresses, there are several ways to find someone's e-mail address on the Internet for free, especially if you know the person's first and last name.

  • You may want or need to contact someone via e-mail but discover you don't have his e-mail address and no one else you know has it either.
  • While there is not a universal directory for e-mail addresses, there are several ways to find someone's e-mail address on the Internet for free, especially if you know the person's first and last name.

If you know the host of the e-mail address, the part between "at" and ".com," go to the domain web site that has registered the e-mail address. Using the member search link, enter the first and last name of the person whose e-mail you want to obtain. Common names will yield a greater number of search results. If the person's first or last name has a nontraditional spelling or the name is uncommon, you may have more luck. For example, the pop star Nicole Scherzinger has an uncommon last name and could yield fewer search results for someone attempting to find her using this method.

Check a previous e-mail for clues. Open the e-mail address and locate the "From" field at the top of the e-mail heading. There you will find an e-mail address. For example, the "From" field could indicate that the e-mail address is from [email protected]. Send a message to the e-mail address; if you receive a message stating that the message was "Undeliverable," the e-mail address is no longer active. In this case, go to the MSN web site and use the member search link because they may have opened a new account with the same host. If that does not work, you can try inputting the name they used for the old address at other domains in case they changed hosts but wanted to keep the same name.

  • Check a previous e-mail for clues.
  • In this case, go to the MSN web site and use the member search link because they may have opened a new account with the same host.

Use the Yahoo People Finder. Enter the person's first name and last name and click "Go." The directory will provide a list of e-mail matches associated with the first and last name you enter. For example, a search of "Jane Doe" could yield the following matches: "[email protected]," "[email protected]," or "[email protected]." The directory is not limited to Yahoo e-mail members.

Do a Web search. Open a Web browser and type the first and last name of the person. For example, type in "John Doe" putting the first and last name in quotation marks. By enclosing the first and last name in quotation marks, the engine will search the name as a whole instead of isolating the first name ("John") and last name ("Doe") and yielding information associated with the singular words, John and Doe.

  • Use the Yahoo People Finder.
  • By enclosing the first and last name in quotation marks, the engine will search the name as a whole instead of isolating the first name ("John") and last name ("Doe") and yielding information associated with the singular words, John and Doe.

Use a corporate domain. If you know where the person works, you could attempt to send an e-mail address using the corporate domain name or searching the company directory for the person's e-mail address. If the person works at Domain Name, his e-mail address could be "firstname.lastname@domainname" or "firstname_lastname@domainname," for example.

TIP

Use one of the four leading social networking websites available to try and find someone for free on the Internet. Look for the person by name by visiting Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram.