With the increasing prominence of email in everyday communication, email search has become an important tool for successful networking. Forward email search refers to when a person looks for a person’s email address using that person’s name and other information; reverse email search, on the other hand, refers to when a person looks for the name of the person who owns an email address.
Together, these provide useful benefits for online networking.
Reconnect with Lost Friends and Relatives
Imagine this: A person is having coffee with a friend she’s known forever. As they recall together their fond memories of football victories and high school proms, her friend says, “I wonder what that quarterback is doing now…?”
As people move between different phases of life, such as graduating from high school to college, or college to the work force, or from one job to another, they tend to lose touch with those from their previous phase of life, whether friends, acquaintances, or even relatives. One of the biggest benefits of email search is the ability reconnect with all those people who had, at one point, been an important part of one’s life.
It is not easy to keep track of the many people one meets throughout life. With the rise of email and the internet, however, email search has become a painless way for a person to contact someonewhen the need arises, regardless of whether they still know that person’s email address or not.
Protect Against Spam and Scams
Many people are used to receiving many emails in their inboxes each day, and it is not uncommon to find spam email amongst them. Sometimes, however, emails can be ambiguous—a person might know a Mary with whom they’ve lost touch over the years, but is this email from the Mary they know or is it cleverly disguised spam? Is an email really from a person’s bank or is it another devious scam?
This is where reverse email search can be hugely beneficial. By searching for the owner of an email address, it is possible to know whether an email is really from the person it is purported to be from. Moreover, if the email search reveals the email to be spam or scam, it is possible to report that person to the authorities to help stop such emails.In this way, email search helps in protecting people from wily scams and annoying spam.
Business Opportunities
Email search can also be useful for business. Since email tends to be a less intrusive and at times more formal form of communication than phone, it is often the method of choice for work-related networking.
While a person is working on a new project, they might remember that an acquaintance back in college worked on something very relevant. They most likely will not have that person’s contact information anymore—but with email search, they will be able to send that persontheir burning questions or a collaboration proposal in no time.
Email search doesn’t have to be limited to old classmates. Colleagues and business partners from previous jobs, the author of a particularly useful or interesting article, a person who was interviewed on the radio about work-related research…the possibilities are endless.
Avoid Awkward Situations
Last but not least, email search can save a person a lot of awkwardness or embarrassment. A person might receive a detailed business email—clearly from someone who they knowvery well, who expects them to know who they are—but they don’t recognize the email address. With a simple reverse email search, they can avoid looking unprofessional.
Or, perhaps a personhas an email address but has forgotten to take down a name. They think they know who it is, but they don’t want to mistakenly suggest a first date to a person who might actually be their business client. In many such situations, email search can be a social lifesaver.
Email search is easy to do online—there are many free and paid sites that offer email search services, both forward and reverse. Why not try email search to enrich your online networking skills?
