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Tech tip: How to find anyone’s email address
Have you ever been given the wrong email address by mistake? What about getting the run-around from a receptionist or personal assistant? It can be frustrating if you need to email someone and you can’t find their address. Tap or click here for details on the most secure email option.
If you have a business proposal and need to get in touch with the marketing manager, how would you go about it? You might be able to call the company to get the address, but it might be extremely time-consuming.
The good news is there are several ways to find out what the email address is of the person you want to connect with. Let’s take a look at a few clever ways of finding email addresses.
1. Google it
It might seem obvious, but one of the best ways to find an email address is to search for it online. If a search like “John Smith” + “email” doesn’t yield any results, there are several other ways to go about it.
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It’s worth remembering that when you use quotation marks in your search, it tells Google to search for that whole phrase. In the example above, results will only be displayed for John Smith. A regular search might produce results related to many people named John and tons of Smiths.
You could also try to guess the email provider the person is using. Try searching for “John Smith” + “gmail.com” or “yahoo.com.” Include the company that the person works for as well, like “John Smith” + “Acme Inc” + “email.”
2. Use a site like White Pages or web directories
The person you are looking for might be listed in a web directory or an online version of White Pages. Try searching with as much information as you have.
With WhitePages.com, you can find cell phone numbers, addresses, business details, relatives and property details. It might not provide you with the email address, but it will certainly give you more information to work with.
There is another website you can try, called Hunter.io. It lets you search through a company’s domain for an email address and lists them with some information redacted. If you find the person you are looking for, it will give you a good idea of their email address. Signing up for a free account will give you 25 free searches a month.
Hunter is aware of data privacy and stresses that any information it lists is collected from public sources, along with discovery dates.
3. Try social media sites
There is a chance that the person included their email address on their social media profiles. It’s less common these days, but some professionals will list it on sites like Twitter or LinkedIn.
RELATED: The big mistake that’s getting you more spam emails and texts
If you do find their social media profile, send them a direct message. Ask if they mind telling you what their email address is or how you can get in touch with them.
4. Try a plugin
Web browser plugins like Email Extractor for Chrome can help you find email addresses on webpages. While you can’t search for email addresses with the plugin, it can extract all the addresses listed on a domain.
This will make it easier to find a specific address if you know where to look. Email Extractor fetches IDs from the website’s source code to show you hidden addresses and addresses listed in plain text.
Email Hunter is another Chrome plugin that you can try. It extracts addresses from pages as you visit them and auto-saves it to a notepad. Using the same technology, Email Hunter also searches through a domain’s source code.
5. Guess the email address
If all else fails, you could try to guess. Most companies use simple naming structures for addresses — for example, John.Smith@acmeinc.com.
Using the Hunter.io web directory, you can easily see what the structure is for a searched company. When you search for a business, the website will show you the most common pattern in their address, like {first}{last}@acmeinc.com.
Related to searching for an address, you could also Google your guessed address to see if any results show up.
Tags: email address, email extractor, email hunter, Google, social media, tips and tricks, web browser, White Pages
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