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1. Find out what your date’s house looks like before you go
Everyone knows how to Google someone (don’t forget the quotes around the name), but did you know you can see almost any home or apartment building on Google Maps just by typing in the address? Just go to Google Maps and enter the coordinates and then click “street view.” Swing the camera angle around, up or down with your mouse on the photo.
2. Find out what your date’s home is worth
We’ve written about Zillow.com before. For those who missed it, or forget, or forget if they missed it, Zillow let’s you click on an aerial-view photo of a house and find out its current value. Though not always accurate, it’s fun nonetheless and gives you at least the ballpark and a nice shot of your date’s hood.
3. Find out your date’s real age
Over at BirthDatabase.com, you can plug in your date’s name and perceived age and the site will spit back all those people around the same age with the same name and give you actual birth cities/towns and filed birth dates. I tried to get it to give me my correct city/age (Philadelphia/past-your-bedtime) but instead, it gave me a bunch of other DKI’s around my age. Still, it might work for you. And, like Zillow, it’s pretty fun.
4. Find out if your date was, in the past, shall we say, not-so-upstanding
Don’tDateHimGirl.com has the skinny on some bad daters, and it seems their database is growing every day. Profiles/posts are written by real people, about real people. From the Web site copy:
“By signing up for membership on DDHG, you must agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The policy states that what you’re posting to the site is the truth and does not contain any defamatory information. Please do not post addresses, social security numbers or any other personally identifying information about anyone to this service.”
5. Find out where your date used to live
Over at ZabaSearch.com, you can type in a name and the engine coughs up past addresses over the last 10 years or so. I tried it on myself and, sure enough, it mostly worked. Even creepier, perhaps (though I’m not sure it works), is this option, which lets you sign up for a notification each time someone searches your name on the site.
Comments (7)
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great, Thanks for all the five ways
posted by sachin on 9-9-2008 at 7:21 am
Interesting… the Birthdatabase couldn’t find me, but it seems to have some Price Is Right logic in it. That is, it only shows people the “approximate” age or older. So you have to be close to guessing their age without going over it.
posted by kp on 9-9-2008 at 11:44 am
Birthdatabase couldn’t find me either, or anyone with my name. But I have a very rare last name.
posted by Lindsey on 9-9-2008 at 3:29 pm
I looked myself up, and found that the first few entries were for an address in a state where I’ve never lived.
Since extensive research has proven that everyone with my exact surname (created when my relatives got off the boat 90 years ago) is related to me and living in the same state (well, except for me), and given the fact that I am the only one with my first name… this kind of alarms me.
Of course, they’ll gladly charge me to find out if there is a Me impostor living out there!
posted by M on 9-9-2008 at 9:05 pm
Birtday database is crap. It doesn’t work
posted by tonya on 9-15-2008 at 6:46 pm
Tonya’s right. The birthday database is crap. It doesn’t work!!
posted by Luana on 10-27-2008 at 7:37 pm
Don’t believe Zillow either. I’m not sure where they get their data but it shows my tractor shed as a 2,600sq.ft. house worth $660k
But it must be true. I read it on the internet!
Uh-huh.
posted by Cliff on 10-28-2008 at 7:43 pm