Contacting someone you have not talked with in a while can be fun, especially when they are someone that once meant a lot to you and your life. Calling them can be hard when you haven't spoken for a while, and if you request them as a friend on a social networking site, you may wonder if they are going to recognize you. If you want an easy way to reopen the lines of communication, see if you can find an email address for them.
It can be hard to find some email addresses, but you won't know what you can find until you try. If the person in question has an email through their Internet provider, you may have a harder time finding what you want. Web based email, however, can be easier because there are databases that you can search. The email accounts some have through such web based services - think Yahoo or Hotmail - tend to be ones people keep for longer periods of time as well. That really helps.
One of the first things you can do is to use a search engine to search for the name of the person that you are trying to contact. You can put their name in quotes and then add the tag 'email' and then search. If someone has a publicly listed email, such as those that work for the government or for a larger corporation, it may come up right away.
If you know where someone works, you can see if that company has a listed email directory on their website for contact purposes that has not come up through a general web search. That may not work, but it is more common than you may think. You may also want to see if you can get someone to come up through professional networking sites (Orkut or LinkedIn). They would have a listed email on such a profile in some cases.
When that does not work, you can see if you can find them through a search on Yahoo or Hotmail. Some opt out of being listed, but you can search for their name and location if you know it. Don't forget that there are some great sites that allow you to search their databases to see if the person you seek comes up in their email directory.
