Saturday, January 16, 2010

What Instant Reverse Email Search Services Can't Tell You

You're probably familiar with the concept of reverse email search services, and if you've done any amount of research on the subject, you probably know that many of these reverse email lookup services purport to provide you with instant results. Even though we live in a 'give it to me now' society, and many of us tend to want that 'instant access' to many things in our everyday lives, quicker results are not always better. Especially when it comes to reverse email lookup services, you'll potentially be missing out on a great deal of information if you choose the instant results over more thorough email address investigation services.

Instant reverse email search results - what they provide

Instant-results reverse email searches can provide simple surface data about the person behind an email address. If you're using an email address alone, without the headers, however, you'll probably be limited to receiving the email address users' ISP, or internet service provider, and maybe some links to online locations where the email address owner may have an account setup, such as a social-networking website.

If you happen to have the full email headers from the sender, you may be able receive even more data, which can include the user's ISP when not available using an email-address only search, the user's IP address, physical location, or maybe even place of employment.

Instant results reverse email searches can be beneficial if you just need a quick lookup on the owner of an email address, but especially without the header information, it's really a guessing game as to whether you will receive any usable results from one of these instant results reverse email lookups.

Missing information from instant email search results

While the instant access method of information retrieval may suit your temperament or even needs better, there is a lot of information that cannot be found, let alone verified, by using an instant reverse email address lookup service. Probably the biggest difference between an instant reverse email lookup services and a comprehensive lookup service is that the latter is in the best position to give you the real identity behind the email address. While you will receive, mostly, the same surface information, you lack of the human research aspect and their interpretation of that information through their years of investigative experience.

For example, a simple reverse email search service may be able to help you identify the owner's ISP or employer. However, a comprehensive look at that email address, using the same information, may be able to help you find a person's real name, their current city or even address, places that they've lived in the past, or detailed information about them through websites that they use, or places where they are registered online. Instant results reverse email lookups simply lack the human research element that can mean the difference between verifying the user behind the email address and receiving ambiguous and unusable information.

Reverse email search services with instant results may bode well with your needs and your temperament, but they oftentimes lack the results that you really need.

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