The situations above are not far from reality. An email is one of the most used media of communication in this age of digital information exchange. It is not uncommon, though, for acquaintances to not know each others email addresses. Especially if there was no cause for communication before. Then there are those times when an email address is accidentally lost. It's always better to not bother these people by asking for their addresses. With our level of technology, an email address search is not a foreign concept.

Email addresses search is commonly called an email look up or email directory search. It's basically typing in the person's name - be it first, last or just a partial - and finding their email address or a list of their addresses. It's similar to the White Pages in phone books, only in it's 21st century incarnation.

In an appropriately named website, whitepages.com, there is an available email addresses search service. The easiest and the most common way to search, though, is through the use of the popular search engines, Google and Yahoo!, for example. Typing in the person's name within quote marks and the word email or an old email address into the search engine box yields numerous results. Often time a whole array of spectacular resources come with the results. Searching in multiple search engines is recommended to arrive at the right match.

Sometimes it's best to input in more information to narrow down to several matches. Information such as birth date, city or state address, along with the name and, if there are any, previous email addresses.

Social Networks like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn also serve as appropriate search engines. Often, if you find that person's profile, and your soul purpose for using an email addresses search is to contact that person, the need for the email address is irrelevant. Especially if that person actively updates his profile.

Email addresses search can also be performed in reverse. This service is called reverse email addresses search. Instead of the input of names and such information, the email address is keyed in the search tab. The resulting reports lists the name, phone numbers, addresses and such information associated with the email address.

When all else fails, premium e-mail search services are available at a price.