You want to know a little more about an internet date or a potential new hire at work, but you don't want to necessarily need a comprehensive background check and definitely don't want to pay for one. With a little know-how and help from the world wide web, you don't have to. Here's how to vet someone online for free without being creepy.

In the wake of the Christchurch earthquake, Google has developed a person finder app to help people locate friends or relatives from the area. A potentially very useful option if you can't make telephone contact.

Need to do a little online detective work? Track down anyone from long lost schoolmates to the new friend whose number you've lost with this assortment of powerful people-search engines. Photo by Byrne7214.

Previously mentioned people search engine Pipl has updated once again, this time offering three new reverse lookups based on emai or username. Finally you can find out more about your online love, superdelegate420. There's not really all that much more to it. The email and username search scours online profiles, photo albums, YouTube accounts, and more based on the username or email address you're searching with. There's a reverse phone lookup, but it's US-only. Email and username searches both found several of my online accounts. Let's hear how well Pipl finds you in the comments.

Pipl

New web service Nombray is out to help folks establish their online identity by registering their name-based domain. Enter your name into the Nombray search engine and register the various available combinations of vanity URL available. (For example, a search for my name returns GinaTrapani.name, GinaTrapani.us, GTrapani.com, etc.) Then, register the URLs of your choice for $US20 apiece, and use Nombray's simple web page designer and hosting service to link to the various social networks and profiles you've set up across the web. (See CEO Chris Lunt's Nombray-powered chrislunt.net site above for an example, where Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are linked from tabs in a top frame.)

Nombray

Previously mentioned people search engine Pipl has updated with a slightly tweaked look and better, more organized results. In a quick comparison between recently featured 123people and Pipl, the results at Pipl thoroughly outdid 123people on accuracy when I searched for myself, including much more accurate results for real email addresses belonging to me. Just enter anyone's name and the city where they live and let Pipl dig up their online profiles, email addresses, photos, and more. With the abundance of people search tools available on the internet, it's easier than ever to track down anyone online. If you've already got a favourite place to stalk, let's hear about it in the comments. Pipl

People search engine 123people.com aggregates search results from several different sources online — and off. Simply enter a person's name, and 123people will display search results from social networks, telephone listings, web pages, Wikipedia and the like. A quick search on my likely new representative in city government, David Chiu, turned up some good candidates for his home address and phone number, and certainly found plenty of photos on Flickr and web sites and articles related to his recent campaign (as well as plenty of information about David Chiu, competitive poker player and others). Potentially creepy? Yes. Potentially useful? Also yes. (It didn't do half as well for non-US searches like the Lifehacker AU editor, it should be noted.) 123people.com

New addition to the people search engine scene iSearch is a powerful tool for hunting down anyone online that offers better results than plain old Google in some cases. Search by name and location, screen name, phone number, school or company, and iSearch returns results from social networks as well as regular old web pages. My test searches for my co-bloggers were very detailed, and displayed many personal facts right within the results page. As with most people search engines, folks who don't have as much of an online presence don't show up as much (or just have multiple results from the same old company or school web page). For more on finding that someone, check out our full feature on how to track down anyone online. iSearch

Are you happy with the results people get back when they Google your name? If not, there are easy ways to monitor and guide what information is published about you online. Two years ago we covered how to have a say in what Google says about you, and more recently, and how to track down anyone online. But a rash of social media sites have arisen that give you more tools to help you manage your online reputation and become more findable. Let's take a look.