The New
I’ve been writing about consumer-oriented personal information databases this past month. So many people use them to find people who have defrauded them, check the criminal history of service providers and generally act as amateur sleuth. I explore the downside of these services in Follow the identity trail of data brokers and Due Diligence on consumer data brokers.

The Private Investigator Research Links for April 2011 include newspaper databases, office tools and search engine reviews.

Old But Still Good
Free. What a bargain! In this case, it is. The Private Investigator Research Links and all postings are searchable by keyword at PIbuzz.com. For example, if you search “newspapers” you’ll find a post with a link to a custom search engine that searches across 4,500 media broadcast and newspaper websites.

Old postings — finding people in the military, making Facebook “friends” private and ethical issues — still generate comments and questions, which appear in the left sidebar. Add an insight or question or offer a response to a reader’s question.

Unrestrained Self-Promotion
That was a warning. We’re on the cusp of a sort-of-summer in the San Francisco Bay Area. When the wind isn’t blowing 30 MPH, as it is today, I’m struggling up one hill or another on my bike (currently on a LeMond but I’m considering another.) But most of the time I’m thinking, researching and writing due diligence reports for attorneys and other PI’s, investigating the background of company executives, finding adoptive parents for their relinquished children and more.

Other Places To Find Me
Content that doesn’t prompt a posting but is still valuable often finds a home at the PI buzz Twitter site or one of two Facebook pages. For more overload, you can get tips on search techniques from this Twitter site.

So Good It Must Be Repeated
The following announcement is for new subscribers and for the rest of you who may have forgotten.

My most recent writing is on the PIbuzz Home page and listed under “Recent Posts”. The section titled “Resources” has custom search engines of different public records that allow you to retrieve content across multiple websites from one search. California Cities and California Newspapers help narrow your searches to content at the websites I’ve included there. The Government Pay page links to government and newspaper databases of government employees and their salaries.

Feed the blog by visiting the links in the Google ads, subtly situated in the sidebars.

You can always reach me at info@pibuzz.com.

Happy reading.

Tamara